Project Darkness
by Taurus Pixie
Summary: This was it. Sonic was finally going to respect her. Amy grinned at the thought as Eggman pulled out a large file from his desk and began flicking through it, being careful to not let Amy see inside. "If you want to take part in my project then I'll need you to spy on that blue pest and report back. Only then can my plan finally work. Can you do that?" Amy smirked evilly. "I can."
1. You're Such a Nuisance

**This is pretty much a re-make of my old story 'Shining Emeralds'. I've tidied up the storyline seen as the other one wasn't going anywhere and I took this one in a slightly new direction. So I hope you like it.**

**Rated T for some mild language, violence and for darker tones later on. **

**I own nothing! All the characters are owned by SEGA and no copyright infringement is intended. No money is being made out of this; I'm just writing this for fun.**

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><p><strong>~ PROJECT DARKNESS ~<strong>

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><p><strong>1: You're Such a Nuisance <strong>

"Attention citizens of Station Square! You are now under my rule and this will become the capital of the new Eggman Empire. Your only options are to surrender or die!" Doctor Eggman cackled into the microphone of his mech overlooking the large city as his Egg Pawns marched in, terrifying the people below.

"You just don't give in do you Egghead?" A familiar cocky voice yelled from the top of a huge skyscraper. The blue hedgehog smirked as he folded his arms over his chest with the sunset behind him giving the appearance of a halo around his head. The sound of a plane could be heard before the Tornado zoomed across the sky, carrying Sonic's friends as they came to his aid.

Eggman groaned. "I should've known it wouldn't have taken long for you to show up."

"Well, I am the fastest thing alive." Sonic boasted, uncrossing his arms to place his hands on his hips sassily, angling his face into the evening breeze, making his quills blow back dramatically.

"Are you sure you're not all talk Sonic?" Eggman taunted. "These new robots have been especially upgraded to resist your attacks from data I have taken from our previous battle. Call it a little gift from me to you."

"A little present just for me? You really shouldn't have Eggman. I'm gunna cry." Sonic sniffed and pretended to wipe a tear away. "Ok then, let's see what they've got."

Sonic leaped off the top of the skyscraper, jumping from building to building as he ran down to the ground where the army of Egg Pawns were waiting. They clearly looked more heavily armoured, but rather than feel threatened, Sonic couldn't wait for the challenge.

Eggman watched from high above, quickly pulling out his notepad and pen and began writing in shorthand the events in front of him. His eyes moved quickly from Sonic to the notebook and back again with the sound of an engine fast approaching him.

"Whoa!" Eggman gasped as he pulled back just in time for the Tornado to fly straight past him. "Honestly some drivers nowadays." He angrily shook his fist at the plane carrying Sonic's little squad.

Amy Rose glared down at the robots that Sonic was effortlessly tearing through despite Eggman boasting about how much he'd upgraded them. The blue blur didn't even look like he was breaking a sweat, but still he was grossly outnumbered and Amy wanted to get down there and protect him at all costs.

The pink hedgehog curled her fingers tighter around the wing of the plane, waiting for Tails' signal with anticipation. The wind whipped through her quills, stinging her eyes slightly as Tails dipped the plane around, ready for them all to jump off.

"Ready, GO!" Tails yelled over the roar of the engine and Amy didn't need telling twice.

She quickly let go of the wing and let gravity do the rest, reaching out to summon her trusty hammer before landing gracefully on the concrete ground. A few robots directed their attention towards her and instantly had her surrounded. Knuckles the Echidna smashed down next to her, slamming his powerful fists into the ground causing huge cracks.

"You wanna piece of this!" Knuckles swung forward, easily taking them out and Amy joined in, smashing her way through robots in order to get closer to her blue hero. No mere Eggman robots were going to keep them apart.

Sonic just realised there was a robot sneaking up behind him as Amy's large red hammer knocked it to one side where it smashed through the glass of an apartment building.

"Thanks Amy." Sonic smiled before running down the street causing Amy's heart to flutter. She'd managed to impress him slightly, if she could keep this up then maybe he'd finally start taking more notice of her. Her plan appeared to be finally working.

Chasing the blue hedgehog down the street, they both skidded to a halt when they saw Eggman hovering above them, yawning.

Sonic smirked up at him. "Tired of making robots that I can always defeat no matter what?"

"You wish." Eggman grunted in annoyance.

"Bah! Some updated robots they were. Piece of cake."

Eggman just smiled innocently. "Oh you thought I meant those robots? No, I meant this one." The mad scientist pressed a button in his mech and the ground began to vibrate. Sonic and Amy both stared at each other, Amy looked worried whilst Sonic seemed unfazed before they both turned towards the source of the sudden crashing noises coming from behind a large restaurant.

A ten foot tall, heavily armoured red robot charged around the corner, trampling on cars with its large metal feet causing alarms to go off and for broken pieces of glass and metal to go flying in all directions.

"A new toy to play with just for me." Sonic chuckled as he crouched into a fighting stance. "Let's see what this pile of scrap metal can do."

"Oh I'd be careful if I were you Sonic. The Egg Alpha was designed to be specifically undefeatable by you. You remember I told you about the data I stole from you? Well guess what I used it on." Eggman grinned mischievously.

Amy's green eyes lit up. This was it. This was her chance to impress him.

"Yeah well, you didn't put my data into it did you? Don't worry Sonic, I've got this." Amy laughed as she charged towards the large robot, hammer held high the air as she let out a battle shriek.

"Amy wait!" Sonic pleaded as his pink friend ran forward, noticing the huge fatal flaw in Amy's logic.

Amy leaped into the air, ready to hit the robot head on, but with one easy flick of its giant hand, it knocked her across the street. Her body slammed into a building, breaking through the glass of some offices where a few hiding civilians screamed in terror. Amy's arm erupted into incredible pain and she felt some blood trickle down her nose, staining the white collar of her dress as she tried to massage the pain out of the right side of her body where the robot had hit her.

"AMY!" Sonic cried out before growling lowly and curling into a spin dash all while Eggman continued to make notes. Sonic briefly wondered what the crazy doctor was writing that kept him so occupied, but he didn't have time to worry about that now. He needed this fight to be over quickly before anyone else got hurt.

He dashed towards the robot in a blue blur, but simply bounced off the thick metallic armour; luckily Sonic managed to land back on his feet.

Amy managed to pick herself back up and, ignoring the pain in her side, picked up her hammer and dived in front of Sonic, shielding him from the robot. She began swinging her hammer at it, but her hammer had no effect. In fact, it rarely even left a dent.

"Amy, just stop it and get out of the way." Sonic ordered, clenching his fists in frustration. Not this again. He appreciated Amy trying to help, but right now, she was just getting in the way.

"It's fine, I can do this." Amy said in a strained voice as she continued to swing her hammer.

If robots had emotions, this one would be bored out of its mind as it effortless flicked Amy off its body again, sending her crashing into Sonic.

"Oooof" Sonic grunted as the force of Amy's body colliding with his at high speed sent them both flying backwards. Sonic's back smashed against the concrete wall, leaving him feeling slightly winded.

Eggman just sat there and laughed. "I've seen all I need to see today." He said in a bored tone as he stopped laughing. "Come Egg Alpha, let's go. Some other time, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Eggman flew away with the Egg Alpha running after him.

Sonic frowned and roughly pushed Amy away from him before he stood up and brushed any debris out of his quills and fur. Amy groaned and rubbed the back of her aching head. Seeing the blood stain on Amy's white collar made Sonic clench his teeth and hiss in an unfamiliar emotion. This made his anger boil up at how Amy had almost gotten herself killed, causing Eggman to get away yet again.

Tails and Knuckles came running over with victorious smiles on their faces.

"Those robots weren't as tough as they looked." Knuckles smirked arrogantly.

"Indeed." Tails agreed as they fist bumped before turning to look at a dirt covered Sonic and Amy. Sonic especially was very sour looking as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"What happened to you guys?" Knuckles asked. "And where's Eggman."

"He got away." Sonic muttered impatiently through gritted teeth.

"What? How?" Tails gasped.

Sonic pointed at Amy who was just getting up off the floor. "Ask her."

"Hey!" Amy shrieked, offended. "I was only trying to help. Plus, can we focus on the fact that it was weird for Eggman to suddenly back away from a fight like that?"

"Uh, why does that matter? As far as I'm concerned, I lost a fight because of you getting in the way - again." Sonic could feel himself reaching the end of his tether with the pink hedgehog. He felt slightly guilty for talking to her like that, but it was true. If she hadn't gotten in the way he could've taken that robot down easily. He was tired of this happening and then it made him look bad and incompetent in front of everybody else.

Amy gasped. "I was only trying to protect you."

Sonic snorted as he folded his arms across his chest. "I don't need protection._ You're_ always the one that needs protection. Constantly running into battles like that with little to no training. You can't always rely on that hammer and that's what gets you into so much trouble and then I have to be there to rescue you. I can't always do two things at once. That's why Eggman keeps getting away recently."

Tails and Knuckles watched awkwardly from the side-lines.

"Guys please – " Tails tried to reason before being interrupted.

"I highly doubt that it's one hundred percent my fault." Amy glared at her crush, both of the hedgehogs ignoring their friends.

"Yeah well this time it definitely was. I don't know what's gotten into you lately Amy, but you've been out of control and all over the place."

Amy bit her lip awkwardly. Sonic hadn't picked on up on her behaviour the way she hoped he would. She wanted him to be impressed with her more active involvement. She wanted to rescue him for once instead of it being the other way around. The need to be noticed by him in a positive way was unbearable as normally he just looked straight through her as if she wasn't there. Looks like her schemes to get him to notice her were backfiring badly. Now Sonic obviously deemed her weirder than ever before. Amy managed to bite back the tears that were threatening to form in her jade green eyes.

"Yeah well maybe it's the new me." Amy retaliated. "I'm not going to be the sweet damsel in distress forever; maybe I'm just growing up."

Sonic rolled his eyes. If that was Amy's goal then it sure wasn't working. The girl had messed up the last five battles with Eggman. Every time Amy just seemed to completely lose her mind in the fight and Eggman would always get away as a result. Then Sonic was the one getting blamed by the citizens who looked to him as their saviour and protector of their peace.

"Well you're doing a really good job then." Sonic said sarcastically, voicing his thoughts without thinking about what he was really saying. "You've ruined every previous fight and I've got the blame for it. You're such a nuisance and you always have been." Sonic finally snapped after bottling in all of his hurt pride for the past few weeks.

Amy gasped and took an automatic step back as if Sonic had slapped her across the face. Knuckles and Tails glared at Sonic for losing his temper like that. No matter what Amy did, they were all still friends and it wasn't like Amy did anything on purpose.

The pink hedgehog bit her lip as her sobs threatened to escape, but she managed to choke out, "Fine, if that's how you feel. I'll get out of your way then." She turned around and ran down the badly destroyed street and disappeared as she turned the corner.

"Smooth, Sonic." Knuckles muttered lowly. "Real smooth."

Sonic's frown dropped into an expression guilt as the reality of what he had said came crashing down on him. He didn't mean for it to come out that harshly, but what he said held some truth. Amy had done nothing but ruin things lately with her erratic behaviour.

"Yeah well, she'll get over it." Sonic sighed before running off in a blue blur to be alone with his thoughts.

After all, Amy always did get over things like this quickly. Right?

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><p><strong>First chapter done. Feel free to let me know what you thought of it by leaving a review. <strong>


	2. Matter of Pride

**Thank you to everyone who has already reviewed, followed and added this story to your favourites. The support is much appreciated. **

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>2: Matter of Pride <strong>

The sun had just set behind the horizon, giving Angel Island a purple hue in the clear approaching night. Stars began twinkling in the sky, the luminous gas in the galaxy could be clearly seen due to the lack of light pollution from cities, making it look like the sky was full of pixie dust. The moon was large and full as it beamed down on the two figures near the shrine of the master emerald: a bored looking red echidna and an impatient, pacing blue hedgehog.

Knuckles sighed as he leaned back against one of the stone pillars as Sonic continued to ramble at what had occurred hours ago. He just couldn't understand why Sonic was getting so wound up over this. Yes he had said some terrible things to her, but that seemed to be the least of the blue hedgehog's concerns right now.

"What does that girl think she's playing at?" Sonic snapped as his pacing became slightly more manic.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "I don't know Sonic." He answered lazily, wishing his friendly rival would leave him alone.

"She's been acting weird for days." Sonic mused, his pacing coming to a sudden stop before placing a hand on his chin in thought. "This is probably another one of her schemes to get me to date her. But how does throwing herself in harm's way help? She was so stupid today; she could've been killed!"

"Sonic, I think you might be over-reacting slightly. Amy's a big girl now, she can take care of herself." Knuckles finally took a more active involvement in the conversation.

"Seeing her covered in blood." Sonic shuddered, ignoring Knuckles' previous statement.

"It was only a small nosebleed!"

Sonic continued to ignore him. "Is she out to prove something? She seriously needs to knock it off. I'm sick of her getting captured and hurt all the time. How can I fight Eggman when I'm constantly worried about what Amy's up to?"

Knuckles' eyes widened before he smirked knowingly. "Oh, I see what this is all about."

Sonic shot him a confused look.

"This isn't just about Eggman getting away is it? I think a certain blue hedgehog is a little overprotective of another certain pink hedgehog." Knuckles teased wiggling his eyebrows.

"Overprotective? Of Amy? Please!"

Knuckles sighed. "Sonic, you haven't shut up about Amy since you got here over an hour ago. Have you tried looking for Amy to apologise?"

Sonic folded his arms stubbornly. "And what do I need to apologise for?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you insulted her and made her cry?"

"All I did was tell the truth. I admit that it came out a lot harsher than what I intended, but Amy'll get over it. She always does."

"Uh huh, and are you sure about that?"

Sonic thought for a moment. "Well yeah because it's Amy."

"I don't know Sonic. Sometimes you can only push people so far before they finally snap." Knuckles commented as he stood up straighter and turned to look at the night view of the forest surrounding the shrine. The only source of light was from the moon and the stars and the dimly glowing master emerald.

"You only require a little push." Sonic joked.

"Hey!" Knuckles yelled angrily, swinging his fist around to punch Sonic in the face. Sonic easily jumped out of the way before smiling and gesturing to Knuckles to prove his point.

"Wise guy." Knuckles grumbled to himself as he stormed back over to stand next to the emerald.

"If you want my advice – "

"I really don't." Sonic interrupted, but Knuckles ignored him.

"I'd apologise to Amy if I were you. She is your friend after all and she was only trying to help."

Sonic pouted in frustration before casually smiling. "Whatever. It's Amy. She always comes running back."

And with that, Sonic took off leaving a cloud of dust behind him where he was just stood.

"And he calls me hard-headed." Knuckles grunted.

Sonic continued running just under the sound barrier as he thought about what Knuckles had said to him. There was no way he was overprotective of Amy. He was angry that she had gotten in the way again. Yeah. That had to be it. But still…seeing her get beat up by that robot made Sonic's stomach churn enough to put him off eating chilli dogs...and that was saying something. That girl seriously needed to calm down and stop trying to impress him in such eccentric ways. First it was all the boxercise training, then the extreme gear riding and now this? He had to admit that the girl was determined and admired her for her commitment. Yet he would rather that she didn't try so hard. It always made him feel awkward and whenever she was near, it always made him feel weird. Maybe that's why he acted so irrationally earlier?

The wind blowing through his quills felt refreshing and he quickly tried to banish Amy from his mind, but the image of her broken expression when he yelled at her dug its claws into his brain and refused to move.

He'd really hurt her.

Running for fun became the last thing on Sonic's mind now as he began paying more attention to his surroundings, looking for a sign of anything pink. His feet unconsciously carried him towards Amy's home before he even registered what he was doing. Maybe he should just swallow his pride and apologise. Now that he's calmed down and the running had cleared his head slightly, he now realised what a jerk he had been to her. He didn't really view her as a nuisance. Quite the opposite. She meant more to him than he would ever dare tell her in case she got the wrong idea. Despite often feeling weird around her, he could identify that it was warm and fuzzy. Most of the time he liked that feeling. The bubbly hedgehog's happiness was so infectious. Sure he hated it when she chased him around, but hey, he would even admit that it could be fun sometimes…unless she was angry.

He just hoped she wouldn't knock him out with her hammer as soon as he approached. Then again a part of him felt like he did deserve it for the way he spoke to her.

Sonic slowed into a brisk jog as he began making his way down the old cobble stoned pathway that led to the small cottage Amy resided in. This place had Amy written all over it. Behind the low, white picket fence was a garden full of flowers in full bloom. Honeysuckle was beginning to weave its way up the stone walls, forming an archway over the slightly rounded door that was painted a faded shade of pink. No lights were on and Sonic wondered if she was asleep.

He hopped over the gate before knocking three times on the wooden pink door and tapped his foot as he waited for any signs of life inside. No answer. Sonic frowned slightly as he stepped to the right to peak through the downstairs window and squinted his eyes to pear into the deserted and dark sitting room. It didn't look like Amy had been home for hours. His frown deepened at the thought of Amy being out and about at such a late hour – especially with Egghead's attacks becoming more frequent. There he goes again.

Mentally slapping himself for worrying too much, he decided that she might have gone to spend the night at Cream's place. That seemed like something Amy would do. Whenever she was upset, Cream was the first person she went to.

Nodding at the plausibility of his explanation, Sonic hopped into the tree growing just outside her house and settled himself for the night. As soon as she came back, he could catch her and apologise. With his feet resting across the branch in front of him, Sonic slouched further against the tree trunk before yawning and falling into a deep sleep.

.

"Stupid stupid stupid!" Amy wailed as the quick and powerful swing of her hammer once again smashed another tree in half. "How could I be so stupid?!"

She burst into another round of tears as Sonic's hurtful words continued to echo through her head. The scorned pink hedgehog had been out in the middle of the woods for hours, smashing up trees and rocks in her fit of rage. She hated the way only Sonic could do this to her. Only he could spark up such hyperbolic reactions to situations he placed her in. Why did she continue to let him do this to her.

Amy collapsed on the ground as her hammer's handle slipped out of her grip and fell limp on the thick grass that was now bathed in moonlight thanks to Amy's tantrum destroying all the surrounding trees. The silver light glittered off Amy's pink fur, reflecting off her heartbroken tears as she gasped for air whilst she sobbed. No one was around so she let it all out. All of the pent up emotion burst through her cracked walls. She curled up into a tight ball on the floor in the hopes that it might somehow hold the pieces of herself together as the pain threatened to tear her apart.

Did Sonic really think that she was that much of a nuisance?

The truth really did hurt. She had been so blinded by the need for his attention that she didn't think about what kind of attention she was actually getting due to her actions towards him. He was freaked out by her. She supposed she only had herself to blame. Amy had wanted him to see her in a new light lately; a strong, independent woman who could take care of herself. The exact opposite happened. Never had she looked more childish and desperate and the very thought embarrassed her to the point that she wanted to hide in these woods forever. How could she ever face him again?

Her tears finally subsided and Amy forced herself to sit up and look around. She had no idea what time it was or how long she had hid herself out here. With a sigh, she realised the only way to start proving how strong and grown up she actually had become was if she would stop crying, get a grip and face her problems head on with maturity and dignity.

A new wave of confidence filled her as she debated what to do next. No more temper tantrums for starters and clearly no cramping on Sonic's style in battle. There had to be a more subtle way to get his attention. A way to earn his respect and make him eat his previous hurtful words to her.

She wasn't going to be the nuisance any longer.

The sound of a twig snapping nearby suddenly caught her attention. Her little pink ear twitched in the direction of the sound. She grabbed her hammer and leaped to her feet. Her instincts kicked in as she kept her eyes locked on the spot the noise came from. Was it a threat? Or had Sonic finally come to apologise. She wasn't sure how she was going to react to the latter. In fact she didn't know why she was getting her hopes up that it might be the latter. Sonic could never swallow his pride.

Amy kept her posture stiff and firm, clinging onto her hammer tighter in the sudden deafening silence. No animal could be heard, which was strange. What ominous presence could do such a thing? Unless she'd scared them all off earlier; she hadn't really been paying attention. The feeling that someone or something was watching her refused to vanish and she wondered if her self-esteem hitting rock bottom had made her even more paranoid.

She risked lowering her hammer slightly as she looked around. Jade green eyes scanned the darkness behind the wall of trees that surrounded her. Nothing happened.

Finally relaxing, Amy put her hammer away only to regret it instantly. Her scream of terror was captured by a strong gloved hand being placed over her mouth. Her panicked thrashing was stopped by a firm grip around her torso that pinned her arms to her side.

"Don't scream, just shut up and listen!" A familiar harsh voice hissed from behind her. She knew that voice. She hadn't heard it in months.

Her escape attempts stopped and her captor, once he realised she wasn't going to try anything funny, released her and Amy relaxed again slightly before turning to face him.

"Shadow?" Amy hissed in annoyance. "You frightened me."

Shadow just shrugged, not caring, and folded his arms over his chest. His ruby red eyes scanned the surrounding area before raising an eyebrow at the destruction that Amy had caused. He never questioned it aloud though.

"Amy Rose, just the girl I was looking for." Shadow said coyly, his face an expressionless mask. That's when Amy knew he meant business.

"You've been looking for me?" Amy asked, looking uncertain as Shadow's mere presence was enough to intimidate her slightly.

Shadow finally smirked at her. "I have a proposition for you."

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinion.<strong>


	3. A New Alliance

**Thanks for all of the reviews guys, I really appreciate the feedback.**

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>3: A New Alliance<strong>

"Uhhh no no no!" Doctor Eggman growled in frustration as he scribbled out his latest notes. The pencil lead snapped under the pressure of his tense hand, stabbing a hole through the centre of his hypothesis. Eggman quickly scooped up the paper and scrunched it into a tight ball before throwing it towards his overflowing trash can where it bounced back onto the floor.

"Boss, you've been working none stop for days. Maybe you should take a break?" Orbot dared to interrupt his master while he was stressed.

Eggman slammed his fists down on his metal desk in frustration. "I have no time for tea breaks, I need to get this project up and running soon. I've been working on this for months and I still haven't got anywhere with it!"

The mad scientist knew that this would finally be the plan that would beat Sonic the Hedgehog once and for all. It was taking months of careful research, filming and recording the blue pest in battles and taking notes of everything that Eggman could see him doing. No matter what, Sonic was always able to defeat him; not even his most dangerous weapon, Metal Sonic, could get the job done. That hedgehog clearly possessed a lot of power that not even Sonic himself seemed aware of his potential. Sonic had even defeated Gods for crying out loud. Sonic didn't even seem to utilise his full potential as Super or Hyper Sonic either. He always seemed to be holding back to prolong the fight for fun. However, there was one thing that had caught Eggman's attention…

"This plan of yours is clearly incredibly risky though, even by your standards." Orbot said as he hovered closer to Eggman. "This could dangerously backfire."

"Don't you think I'm aware of the risks?" Eggman snapped. "This project is definitely worth it, I just need to find a way to activate it. I've tried everything! I've thrown every robot I've got at that blue speed demon and still with poor results. I'm clearly doing something wrong."

Eggman wandered over to his large chalkboard, placing his hands behind his back as he looked deep in thought at the diagrams of the chaos emeralds. He didn't have time to juggle looking for the chaos emeralds and spying on Sonic at the same time.

"Clearly I'm going about this all wrong." Eggman admitted. "There is some crucial piece of information that's missing."

"And what's that?" Orbot asked.

"His personal life. I know what Sonic's like in battle, but I have no idea what that hedgehog gets up to when I'm not around to interrupt. That could be the missing link in my project that I need to defeat him as an enemy."

Orbot cocked his head in confusion. "So you're going to become friends with him?"

Eggman laughed evilly before shaking his head. "Don't be ridiculous. Sonic would never let his guard down when I'm around. I need to get him when he's acting his most natural, when he's not on guard. I need someone who he can trust to be able to spy on him, only I have no idea how I'm going to manage to do that."

There was a sudden knock on the thick metal door that interrupted Eggman's brainstorming. The door slowly opened and Cubot peeped his head around, looking slightly nervous.

"Hey boss, you'll never believe this, but someone is here to see you." Cubot said in an unsure tone.

Eggman sighed before walking over to sit back down on his desk chair.

"Well send them in and it better not be those pushy charity people again; my trap door still needs fixing."

Cubot pushed the door fully open to reveal a small, familiar pink hedgehog stood next to the yellow robot. Eggman gasped before pulling a laser gun out of his desk drawer and aimed it at the girl. Amy didn't react as she stood there with her fists clenched tightly at her sides and a fierce expression on her face.

"Relax, I'm not here to attack you." Amy announced, but Eggman didn't lower his weapon.

"Then what do you want?" He asked. What could Sonic's crazy girlfriend possibly be doing here if she wasn't going to attack him? "Where's that idiotic boyfriend of yours."

Amy flinched slightly at Eggman's comment, but managed to remain focused. It was all depending on her now.

"He's not here."

Eggman finally lowered the weapon slightly. "Well I don't think he'll be too happy about you being here, especially after the fuss you made at our last battle." He chuckled.

"Yeah well I don't care about that blue idiot anymore." Amy snapped.

Bursting out into a fit of laughter, Eggman placed the weapon down onto the desk and adjusted his blue glasses slightly. "Finally, something we agree on."

Amy waited for his laughing fit to die down.

"But seriously though Miss Rose. You still haven't answered my question; what _are _you doing here? Has Sonic finally told you how much of a waste of space you are?"

"In a sense, yes."

"Really?" That one had caught Eggman off guard. He never got the impression that Sonic actually hated the girl.

"So I'm here to join you."

Ok, this day was turning out a lot weirder than Eggman had expected it to. Amy was the last person that Eggman expected to join him. That girl worshipped the ground Sonic walked on and teaming up with his arch nemesis would most definitely not score her points with the speed demon.

Amy's heart thudded in her chest as she processed Eggman's lack of reaction. Was this plan not going to work? What would she do if he turned her away? Her heart sped up even more as Eggman leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk and intertwining his fingers.

"I'm listening."

The pink hedgehog held in a sigh of relief before speaking. "I've had it with those lot. Obviously Sonic thinks I'm a worthless waste of space and after the way he's treated me, I want revenge. You're the only person who can see him for who he really is. An arrogant pest who hogs all the glory. You are much more worthy of my services."

Eggman smiled as she flattered his ego. "How do I know this isn't some sort of scheme?"

"I'll prove my loyalty in any way possible." She answered quickly, walking forward to stand in front of Eggman's desk, her passionately angry green eyes burned into Eggman's. "Sonic has lead me on for years, only coming to me when he needs something only to drop me the next second. I've had enough. He's really hurt me. I want to see that boy suffer the way I have; I want revenge."

Her fingers were pressed tightly against the desk as she spoke with clenched teeth. Her ears were flattened with rage and her quills rose slightly before she took a deep breath through her nose to calm down.

Eggman, Orbot and Cubot watched with fascination at the once cheerful and bubbly girl before them. Eggman raised an eyebrow at her. It looked like Sonic had played with her emotions for the last time. Twisting the poor girl into a revenge driven maniac. Eggman narrowed his eyes as he stared at her face, still debating on whether she was lying or not. She was panting slightly and her eyes remained hard as steel, the strength of her grip on his desk left small imprints in the hard metal.

This girl could obviously be useful in some way.

That's it!

It was so brilliant that Eggman nearly fell out of his chair at the thought. The love of Sonic's life working for _him. _The thought of using her against his arch enemy would be the most wonderful form of justice that Eggman could ask for. He'd asked for help with his project and now he had gotten it. Amy was perfect for this! His plan was finally coming together. Project darkness was back on and ready to go. One of the largest hurdles had now been crossed and now Eggman just needed to use this new weapon in front of him to access all the unlimited information on Sonic he could. The possibilities were now endless.

"Then by all means Pinkie, you can join me in my cause."

Amy smiled wickedly. This was it. Sonic was finally going to respect her. She couldn't wait to see his reaction once she finally revealed what she had done.

Amy grinned at the thought as Eggman pulled out a large file from his desk and began flicking through it, being careful to not let Amy see inside. He looked through a few of his notes carefully before looking up and smiling innocently at Amy.

"Actually, you've come at just the right time my new little minion."

Amy reached into the pocket of her red dress before pulling her fingers back out again and placing a hand on her hip.

"Oh really?"

Eggman nodded as he placed the file away again. Clearly that was not meant for Amy's eyes.

"Because I've been developing a plan that, shall we say, Sonic will have no choice to bow down to in the end." He let out a light chuckle. "A little project I have been working on for a while. However, I need to create the appropriate conditions in order for this project to become a success. So far I've had no such luck, but now with you on side, I have the advantage again."

Amy nodded as she listened carefully with great interest.

"For this to work I've decided that my first best bet is collecting the all the chaos emeralds. In my absence I need you to do some little tasks for me."

"What is this project?" Amy asked slightly timidly as her eyes flickered from the draw that contained mysterious file and back to Eggman. Eggman just smiled and patted her head in a patronising manner.

"All in good time my dear."

Amy decided not to push her luck for now. If this plan of his forced Sonic to notice her and prove that she wasn't a mere nuisance then she was all for it and didn't particularly care right now. Her first task was to join Eggman, nothing more.

"If you want to take part in my project then I'll need you to spy on that blue pest and report back. If they come across a chaos emerald then sabotage their attempts to get it. I want to know everything about that hedgehog. Every tiny piece of information, no matter how trivial, I need to know. When I ask you to do something, you do it without question. Only then can my plan finally work. Can you do that?"

Amy smirked evilly. "I can."

.

"Amy!" Sonic gasped out as he woke up from his very uneasy sleep.

The sun had now risen over the horizon ready for the new day. It was another clear, warm spring's day and the flickies in the trees had begun singing. Completely juxtaposing the horrible dream that Sonic had just experience. It was fading from his memory and all he could remember now was that he was too late to save his friends from Eggman's clutches.

Sonic shook his head at the thought. He would never let that happen in a million years.

A whistling sound suddenly caught his attention. His ear twitched at the sound before he looked down from the tree he had crashed in and saw Amy walking up to her house, whistling to herself. This was his chance. He easily leaped down from the tree and dashed towards the front of her house, halting in front of her door and making Amy freeze in place once she saw him.

"Amy can we talk?" Sonic pleaded giving her his best puppy dog eyes.

Amy just sneered at him. "I have nothing to say to you." She knew what her job was but if she made this easy for him it might look a bit suspicious. Besides, she supposed it would be fun to watch him squirm under her angry glare.

"Well I have some things I would like to say to you." Sonic replied before Amy pushed him out of the way of her door and pulled her keys out. The lock clicked as she twisted them in the door and pushed it open to step inside. She was about to slam the door before Sonic's strong hand prevented her from doing so.

"Let go Sonic." Amy ordered as she tried to push the door shut. Sonic wouldn't relent.

"Oh no, you are going to hear what I have to say whether you like it or not."

Amy suddenly yanked the door open without warning, causing Sonic to stumble forward like an idiot before face planting the wooden floor of Amy's sitting room.

"This just proves it." Amy sighed, ignoring the pained groans of Sonic, still lying by her feet.

"Proves what?" Sonic's face was muffled by the floor before he looked up at her. She was looking down sadly, avoiding all eye contact with him. The sight squeezed at his heart and he quickly leapt to his feet. He reached out a hand to comfort her but the words she spoke next halted him in his tracks.

"That you only care about yourself. You're apologising so you'll feel better, to get rid of the guilt, rather than to make me feel better."

Sonic's eyes dropped to the floor and he rubbed the side of his arm awkwardly.

"That's not true." He mumbled. "I really didn't mean the things I said. I don't think that you're a nuisance. I just got caught in the heat of the moment and I know that's no excuse. I guess my pride was just hurt from Eggman getting the last laugh again and I took it out on you. I'm so sorry."

Amy looked up at him in shock of how sincere he sounded, but quickly dropped her gaze again before he could see.

"I forgive you." She whispered and Sonic looked up to beam at her.

He soon realised that Amy hadn't crushed him against her in her death hugs which was unusual. He was grateful for it though and took a hesitant step towards her and held out his fist in front of him.

"So are we cool?"

Amy giggled slightly before meeting his fist with hers.

"We're cool."

"Alright!" Sonic yelled happily, performing a miniature air guitar solo. "We should eat cake to celebrate our mended friendship. I'm starving!"

Amy rolled her eyes as she followed the blue blur into her kitchen. Sonic raided her cupboards until he found what he was hunting for.

"Cake for breakfast?" Amy asked in disbelief with an eyebrow slightly raised.

"Why not?" Sonic laughed as he got a knife out of the oak wood drawer and cut himself a huge piece. "Besides, your baking is the best."

"It's nice to know I'm useful for something." Amy muttered as she walked to stand next to him as he tried to judge what size to cut her piece.

"How big do you want your piece?" He asked. "Or are you on one of those weird girly diets?"

Amy huffed in irritation as she snatched the knife off him and cut herself a massive piece. Sonic's eyes widened slightly as she placed the piece on a floral patterned china plate.

"What? After the night I've had, I deserve a treat."

Sonic laughed as they made their way into Amy's cosy sitting room and sat down as far apart as they could on couch opposite the TV and stoned fireplace. Sonic propped his feet up on the coffee table before Amy frowned and kicked his feet off, causing Sonic to laugh again.

"You need to relax a little more."

"And you need to respect other people's property." Amy retaliated as she swallowed a huge bite nervously before suddenly losing her appetite. Sonic wolfed his down in seconds while Amy just pushed her leftovers around with her folk, feeling her eyes droop slightly as the sleepless night caught up with her.

"Listen, Amy," Sonic began, sounding anxious, "I still feel bad about what I did so maybe we could do something together? As friends?" He quickly added before she got the wrong idea. Taking her out to do something would be the least he could do after everything he had said to her. His stomach did summersaults at the thought of being alone with her and he put it down to the fear that she might interpret his actions and start telling people that it was a date.

"Yeah, that's fine." Amy replied sleepily, not really registering what her blue companion had said properly.

Sonic, surprised at the lazy tone of voice, turned around to see Amy slumping against the arm of the sofa. Her eyes drifted closed.

"Amy?" Sonic said. "Are you asleep?"

No reply. Amy's soft snores began to fill the room and Sonic smiled down at her. He reached down and took her plate off her and placed it on the polished, pristine coffee table before turning back around to stare down at her.

"You really are hopeless." He muttered and before he could stop himself, he brushed a stray quills off her face. Electric shocks travelled up his arm, but it wasn't unpleasant; it was warm and comforting.

Shaking his head at the weird direction his thoughts had taken, he quickly got up and headed out the door, leaving Amy to sleep peacefully. He would come back later when she was awake. Sonic gently closed the door behind him and made his way down the stone pathway, breathing in the scents of the many flowers and the fresh morning air.

Spending the evening with Amy couldn't be all bad, he hoped.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	4. Flour Fight!

**Thank you for the reviews! I'm not too sure when my next update will be given that Christmas is coming up, but I'll see if I can manage to update for this coming Sunday. **

**I own nothing!**

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><p><strong>4: Flour Fight!<strong>

Sonic stood awkwardly at the end of Amy's street. His feet, for once, refused to carry him forward as he started to sweat nervously. Why did he offer to do this again? Mentally slapping himself, he reminded himself that he wanted to make it up to Amy. The idea of being alone with her for a long period of time made him feel uncomfortable, yet excited. He would occasionally get butterflies in his stomach at the thought and it confused the hell out of him. He eventually put it down to nervousness at the thought that Amy could very easily delude herself into thinking his act of kindness was due to him having feelings for her. Which he didn't!

Gulping and biting his lip, the blue hedgehog forced his feet to walk the rest of the way down the cobbled road and approached her house. The sun was just beginning to set so he figured that Amy would be awake by now. He was actually surprised that she hadn't started chasing him as soon as she woke up. Maybe she was still asleep? Either that, or Amy was acting weirder than he'd previously thought.

He took a deep breath and gently knocked on the faded pink door. Amy didn't answer, but he could definitely hear her talking inside; so she was awake. She sounded so…off? Sonic frowned as her tone of voice started to sound slightly distressed. Was she arguing with someone in there? Were one of Eggman's robots kidnapping her?

Sonic's heart lurched at the thought and he grabbed the doorknob and twisted – slightly surprised it was unlocked – before creeping his way towards the kitchen where Amy still continued to talk. Her voice became clearer and less distressed, but it didn't sound like anyone else was in the room with her. He turned the corner and stood in the doorway of the kitchen where Amy was stood with a large mixing bowl in her hand and her phone in the other, pressing it against her ear tensely with her back turned to him.

"You do know this isn't easy for me." Amy growled into the receiver. "I know I signed the contract and I intend to keep my word, but – …I didn't expect him to – …what if I get caught, then what?"

"Get caught doing what?" Sonic asked suspiciously and Amy screamed and turned around to face him, quickly hanging up and dropping her phone onto the wooden kitchen counter.

"Sonic, hi, errrr…getting caught over something Cream and I are planning to make for Vanilla." Amy smiled showing off her pearly white teeth.

"Oh right." Sonic grinned and winked at her. "Didn't mean to scare ya."

"No no it's fine." Amy replied a little breathlessly as she picked up a spoon and began stirring again. "Anyway not that I mind, but what are you doing here?"

Sonic's eyes widened slightly. "What do you mean? I said I'd hang out with you and make up for what I did?"

"Oh," Amy looked confused for a second before smiling, "Yeah I remember now, sorry."

Sonic continued to stare at her with a perplexed expression. Was she…feeling alright? She was officially scaring Sonic now. Amy Rose had actually forgotten that she was supposed to be spending time with him? Ouch. Maybe this was how she felt when he forgot to show up for dates…wait what was he thinking? Why was he so bothered and slightly hurt by what she had said? Maybe it's just because it was so unlike her? _Or maybe I – _No, shut up!

"Ooooh, cake!" Sonic exclaimed childishly, pushing his earlier thoughts down as he spied the mixture Amy was currently folding in the bowl.

He was by her side in a nanosecond and was about to dip his finger in when Amy swatted his hand away.

"Hey back off." Amy giggled. "This stuff is for Cream's party tomorrow so I can't afford to get Sonic germs all over them."

"Rude." Sonic moaned as he rubbed his sore fingers. "So, what're ya baking?"

"Just a sponge cake and some cookies." Amy replied in a sing-song voice, pouring the mixture into a baking tin. "We were thinking simple, yet elegant. You are coming to the party right?"

"Of course." Sonic smiled, watching as she placed the tin of deliciousness into the oven. He sat himself comfortably down on one of the breakfast bar stools. Amy began flicking through her cookbook until she found the perfect cookie recipe.

"Need a hand?" Sonic offered and Amy stared up at him in astonishment.

"What? You? Baking?" Amy laughed, disparaging him.

Sonic shot her a playful glare. "Don't mock me girl, I'm the baking master."

"Have you ever even baked before?"

"Well, no."

Amy rolled her eyes as she reached down into one of the cupboards and pulled out another mixing bowl before placing it down onto the counter.

"But that doesn't mean I don't have a secret talent for it."

"So egotistical." Amy sighed as she scraped some butter onto the weighing scales, sticking her tongue out in concentration that Sonic found surprisingly cute. Wait, what? Her little button nose was also scrunched up in concentration as she also began weighing the sugar.

Sonic shook his head to clear it before he spoke again. "So, what can I do to help?"

"Hmmm," Amy thought, "Why don't you get the flour out of that cupboard over there?" She pointed to the one by the window that looked out into her flower filled back garden, although it was hard to see with the approaching night.

He grabbed the flower and stood next to Amy as he began to juggle the pack in his hand.

"Sonic, watch it!" Amy shrieked as Sonic caught it in one hand only for a huge cloud of flour to puff out in a white cloud, settling on Amy's face and dress, making her look like a ghost.

Sonic couldn't contain his fits of laughter as he dropped the pack onto the table. Amy looked like a very surprised ghost as she registered what Sonic had done and quickly glared at him.

Sonic stopped laughing to stare at her with unblinking, fear filled eyes. Now he'd done it.

To his surprise though, he was only greeted with a face full of flour as Amy scooped some into her hands and threw it at him, making Sonic cough slightly in the process. Amy laughed at the sight, clutching her sides as Sonic stood there with a bewildered expression before he began laughing with her. Sonic ran across the now slippery, flour covered tiled floor, skidding to a stop as he grabbed a hand full of flour and threw it at Amy's face like she had done to him, giving her another layer of the white powder to cover her pink fur.

"Sonic!" Amy laughed, her eyes glittering like emeralds in the sun as Sonic laughed hysterically at how covered they both were. "I swear there's more flour on us and on the floor than in all the cakes."

"Honestly, I thought you'd be mad that I'd got flour on your favourite dress." Sonic said as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

Amy waved her arm, signalling that it didn't matter. "Oh, it's all in good fun. It'll wash out."

Sonic smiled. She was way cooler than he'd originally thought. He expected her to go ballistic over making such a mess as she always seemed like such a neat freak.

"You're helping me clean it up though."

And there she goes. Sonic chuckled and nodded as he brushed some of the white powder off his body and off his gloved hands. Amy did the same before adding the left over flour in the pack into the cookie dough and began mixing it. She let Sonic crack some eggs into it which he actually manage to do without making a mess and then let him stir the rest of it.

"I'm such a stirring pro." Sonic grinned as he got the mixture to the right consistency.

"Indeed." Amy complimented as she took the bowl off him and began using a spoon and scoop bits of the mixture onto the baking tree she had just finished greasing. Once she had finished she placed them in the oven and then they both tidied up together.

Sonic never actually thought hanging out with her on her own would be so much fun. He couldn't even remember why he was so worried in the first place. She hadn't tackled him once during their time together and for once, she didn't even seem to be using any scheme to get him to notice her. She was actually just being herself tonight instead of going all giddy, weird and out of control which was what usually happened whenever she was around him.

Amy finished sweeping up before they both sat down next to the oven, waiting for the cakes and cookies to finish.

"You been sleeping alright?" Amy asked, looking slightly concerned as she stared at the small bags under Sonic's eyes.

Sonic rubbed them self-consciously before chuckling. "Just had a rough night, that's all."

"Me too." Amy mumbled and Sonic instantly began feeling guilty again. Thankfully, Amy quickly changed the subject. "So how come you had a rough night."

"I dunno." Sonic muttered apathetically. "Just a bad dream."

"Want to talk about it?" Amy offered, clearly interested in what could disturb the blue hero so much.

"I don't even remember that much." Sonic sighed. "I have it every now and then. It's just us battling Eggman and you all get defeated and I can't do anything but stand there and watch – I always feel so helpless." He didn't even though why he was sharing this with Amy, but she was just one of those people who you could easily talk to. She was so compassionate and understanding. Not a bad bone in her body. She wouldn't judge and Sonic liked that about her.

"That won't happen Sonic." Amy reassured him as she offered him a soft smile.

Sonic smiled back and got lost in her eyes before the timer went off making them both jump.

"The cake and cookies are done." Amy announced happily she put on her oven gloves, opened the door and pulled them out.

"They smell great!" Sonic's mouth watered as the sweet aroma filled Amy's small kitchen.

"Well you can't have any until tomorrow."

Sonic pouted.

"Not even a chef VIP taste?"

"Sorry Sonic."

Sonic huffed before he yawned and stretched, beginning to feel tired. He looked at the clock and gasped at how late it had gotten. He expected time to drag with Amy, but it had flown by.

"Wow, is it that late already?" Sonic voiced his thoughts. "I should get going. This was fun, we should hang out more often." He admitted before he could stop himself. He expected her to charge at him and hug him to death, but nothing happened. He turned his body to see what she was doing, but she had her back to him, appearing to be staring at her wrist.

However, as soon as Sonic looked her way she quickly turned back around to smile at him.

"Sure, I had a lot of fun."

"See ya around Ames." Sonic chuckled before seeing himself out and Amy let out a breath she didn't realise that she was holding.

.

"Took you long enough." Eggman snapped as Amy walked into the small field where he had been waiting for her for nearly an hour. "I thought I was never going to get hold of you. I haven't been able to speak to you since you left last night." He pointed impatiently at the wrist communicator he had hidden under one of her gold bracelets.

Amy glared at him in the darkness. The night was cloudy with the only source of light coming from the headlights on Eggman's mech and the flashlight that Amy had brought with her to find her way. Some bats fluttered off in the distance, but aside from that, the night was quiet and empty, ominous and enigmatic.

"I was spying on Sonic like you told me." Amy responded coldly. "I couldn't just drop everything and blow my cover."

"Humph." Eggman huffed as he crossed his arms over his egg shaped belly. "Report."

"Nothing much really." Amy began. "He seemed pretty crestfallen over what he said to me and offered to spend the evening with me to make it up to me. We ended up baking some cakes for a party, had a food fight – "

"Great." Eggman grunted. "Trust me to hire a minion who mixes business with pleasure."

Amy ignored his comment.

"Then just got talking about a re-occurring nightmare that he has."

"Ugh so nothing useful tonight then?" Eggman moaned as he unfolded his arms and tapped his fingers against the metal rim of his mech. The tapping echoed across the field as Eggman thought about what Amy had just told him.

Wait…a nightmare? A re-occurring nightmare? Eggman thought back to his university years and all the science classes he had taken. Re-occurring nightmares were usually a sign of stress or fear. So, it looked like the blue hedgehog wasn't so perfect after all. Eggman suddenly had a huge hunch that he was onto something big here. He adjusted his glasses as he smirked evilly and turned back to face Amy who was watching him with a very guarded expression.

"Did he happen to tell you what the nightmare was about?"

Amy nodded. "He just said it involved you defeating us while he was helpless to stop it."

Something clicked in Eggman's brain. "Of course. Why didn't I think of this before? But I'll have to run some little tests to be sure."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"Oh nothing to worry about." Eggman smiled innocently at her. "You'll know it when it happens, but don't worry, I'll make sure you won't get harmed seen as you're my most valuable asset at the moment so when it happens you'll have to do some acting."

"Right…?" Amy frowned, still sounding unsure about what Eggman was planning.

"Thank you Amy. You have been most helpful so far." He congratulated her.

Amy merely smirked and nodded in response and turned to leave before Eggman's urgent voice stopped her.

"Hang on, I almost forgot. I've detected a chaos emerald somewhere in Tails' workshop. Be a dear and steal it for me would you? And be secretive about it. Wouldn't want your cover blown now would we?"

"Definitely not." Amy replied flatly. "I'll get you the emerald."

"Adda girl." Eggman praised in a patronising way. "After tomorrow, I'll be two steps closer to project darkness becoming a reality and with the results, I'll be able to rule the world and maybe even…the universe."

Eggman's evil laugh echoed into the dark, eerie night.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	5. Finding The Weakness

**Hey everyone! Do you like the new cover that GummyGal created? She's awesome and I highly recommend her. Thank you for the reviews; it's nice to see that no one seems to have any idea of what's going on. So no one picked up on my clues in the previous chapter? *laughs evilly***

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>5: Finding The Weakness<strong>

"I think that's the last of it." Sonic said as he hung up the last streamer on the wall.

"Thank you dear," Vanilla beamed as Sonic hoped down from the table he was stood on, "Cream is going to love it."

"Don't thank me, thank Amy. She's the one who went nuts over the party planning." Sonic chuckled as he thought about the slightly manic little pink hedgehog, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly like they normally did whenever he thought about her – especially lately. Speaking of which, where was she anyway?

"Where is Amy anyway?" Sonic asked and Vanilla's smile faded slightly.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen her all day. What if she misses Cream's entrance?"

Sonic sighed. "Don't worry, I doubt Amy would miss it for the world."

Sonic tried to hide the worry in his voice though. It was incredibly unlike Amy to disappear at moments like this. Emerald green eyes scanned the garden of Vanilla's house. Balloons and streamers were hung up everywhere with the largest having 'Happy Birthday Cream' in large red letters. The cakes and cookies that he and Amy had baked the previous night were on the food table, so clearly Amy had been here. The rest of his friends were getting the last things for the party ready. Knuckles and Rouge were arguing over something in the corner, Vector was in the music area, flirting with Vanilla while Espio and Charmy shook their heads. Tails was sorting the speakers and lights out and Blaze had come over to visit and now had the little rabbit out and about in town, distracting her. But no Amy. She was supposed to be head party planner.

"Yo Tails," Sonic called as he made his way over to his little brother, "Have you seen Amy anywhere?"

Tails looked around before looking back down at the blue hedgehog apologetically. "Sorry Sonic, but I haven't seen her for a while now. Maybe she went out to join Blaze and Cream so Cream wouldn't suspect anything?"

Sonic calmed down at the high possibility that Tails could be right.

"Sssh, they're coming!" Vector hissed into the microphone and everyone began ducking down and hiding behind objects.

"Says the guy shouting into a microphone." Charmy muttered sarcastically before Vector grabbed hold of the young bee's wings and pulled him down, hiding him behind a speaker.

Sonic hid behind a bush as he heard Cream's laughter get closer and closer. Everyone poised themselves before the back door opened.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone yelled and jumped out from their hiding spots.

Cream giggled and clapped her hands merrily while Blaze smiled down at her. Amy was nowhere in sight though. Sonic frowned as he began to worry. Had she stepped out to get something and Eggman had got her? Sonic shivered at the thought as Cream and Blaze approached him.

"Thank you so much Mr Sonic." Cream sang as she threw her arms around Sonic's middle. Cheese cooed happily as he did little dance moves in the air. "It's so wonderful and kind of you to do such a thing for me." She let go of him and bowed in respect, but Sonic just waved her off.

"I can't wait to see Amy." Cream chirped before looking around in confusion. "Where is she anyway?"

Sonic cringed and leaned in to whisper to Blaze, "I thought she was with you?"

Blaze's yellow eyes widened before she whispered back, "I haven't seen her since this morning when I got here. Wasn't she supposed to help set up the party?"

"Yeah well she seemed to have disappeared hours ago and I'm beginning to worry that Eggman might have got her."

They suddenly realised that Cream was still expecting an answer.

"Oh, don't worry Cream." Blaze struggled to come up with an excuse. "I'm sure that Amy's just out buying some last minute things for the party."

"Yeah, she'll be back in no time." Sonic winked at her reassuringly, hating the fact that he was lying.

Cream didn't look too convinced. "That's not like Amy. She's normally very well organised."

_Dammit, _Sonic mentally cursed before stuttering to come up with another excuse. "Yeah, but Amy has a lot on her mind lately."

Cream finally seemed to be buying it. "Hmmm, I just hope she doesn't miss anymore of the party."

"Me neither." Sonic muttered as Cream skipped off to talk to Tails.

"I'm gunna go out and look for her." Sonic announced to Blaze.

"Need backup?" She offered.

"I think I'll be fine. Keep the party going. Amy has definitely been acting weird lately and I'm going to try and get to the bottom of it. If Eggman has got her, I'll handle it like always." Sonic said determinedly. "I swear if he's hurt one hair on her head…" He mumbled to himself as he ran off.

Blaze smirked. "It would be more than his life's worth."

Sonic followed the road, hoping to see any sign of Amy making her way back to the party. There was no sign of anything pink anywhere and Sonic began to really worry. How could she have just disappeared like that? His heart beat frantically in his chest at the thought that some sort of harm might have come to her. He would never forgive himself if he was too late. No. He couldn't afford to think like that. He would find her.

He zoomed past Tails' workshop before freezing when he heard rattling inside and something falling over. He ran back and paused outside the door. _Crash. _Yeah, someone was definitely in there. Sonic frowned at the thought of someone daring to intrude in his best friend's workshop.

Spin dashing his way in, the wooden door splinted apart into a hundred pieces, scattering everywhere. Sonic uncurled himself just in time to see the silhouette of a small figure in the darkness and tackled it to the ground. The intruder shrieked as they both rolled over the desk with Sonic managing to land on top and pin the intruder down by their wrists.

"What are you doing?!" A familiar voice shrieked from under him.

Sonic froze and his hold on the person's wrists loosened.

"Amy?"

"Who else?!"

Sonic gasped as his eyes adjusted to the darkness to see a very miffed looking Amy lying under him. His cheeks turned pink as he realised he was straddling her and quickly climbed off her.

"Ah geez, I'm so sorry Amy. I thought you were an intruder." Sonic gasped out awkwardly as he held his hand out to help the pink hedgehog stand up.

"What were you doing here anyway?" Amy demanded as she quickly bent down to swipe a piece of paper off the floor. For a moment it looked like one of Tails' analysis of his super state, but he couldn't be sure.

"Looking for you." Sonic replied as he folded his arms across his chest suspiciously. "Why did you run off? What have you been doing in here?"

"Too many questions." Amy huffed, avoiding his questions, shoving pieces of paper into her pocket.

Sonic stared at her in alarm as she refused to look at him. The horrible feeling in his gut that something wasn't right unleashed itself into his body full force. He felt it from his head to his toes. Amy was acting so strange and now she was taking it to a whole new level. The pink hedgehog wrapped her arms around herself, burning holes into the floor with her stare as they continued to stand there in the darkness. She bounced her knee up and down, something Sonic noticed that she did whenever she was nervous about something and the heel of her boot clicked repeatedly against the concrete ground in the process.

Sonic's face turned serious as he tried to get to the bottom of her strange behaviour. "Ok, seriously, what's going on Ames?"

Amy suddenly burst out laughing, but it sounded fake and only caused Sonic to become more alarmed.

"Oh don't be silly Sonic, I was only joking. Tails said he had some paperwork that he urgently needed and because he was so busy with the sound system, I decided that I would get it for him." Amy explained a little too enthusiastically.

"Riiiight," Sonic folded his arms across his chest, "Why would Tails need paperwork in the middle of a party?"

Amy smiled widely and shrugged. "Workaholic I guess? Or maybe he needed to urgently go somewhere after the party? I don't know. I didn't ask."

Sonic sighed as Amy continued to smile at him, deciding that it was best that he didn't continue to question her at that moment. They needed to get back before people became too worried.

"I thought you'd been captured by Eggman." Sonic admitted as a lump formed in his throat at the thought.

"Why would you think something like that? I can handle myself you know." Amy's eyes lit up dangerously and Sonic backed away, holding his hands up in defence.

"I never said you couldn't, I was just worried that's all." He replied. "Can't I worry about you without getting my head bitten off?"

"I'm not biting your head off, I'm merely saying – "

Sonic cut her off abruptly. "Ok before we take a trip down argument lane again, how about we get back to the party before people start to worry."

"Oh relax, the party doesn't start for hours."

Sonic stared at her as if she'd grown two heads.

"What?"

"Amy…the party started ages ago."

Amy gasped, grasping her pink quills with her gloved hands in horror. "Oh my god! I completely lost track of time! Oh what's Cream going to think of me?!"

"Less worrying, more running back to the party as fast as we can."

Scooping her up bridal style, Sonic managed to get them back in no time and set Amy on the ground gently whilst she tried to straighten out her quills.

"Give me a warning next time you're going to do that." She huffed before gasping as Cream ran over to greet them.

"Amy, you're ok!"

Amy looked like she was fighting back tears as she pulled the young rabbit into a tight embrace.

"Cream, I am so sorry." Her voice cracked as she apologised. "I lost track of time, I'm sorry sorry sorry sorry, a thousand times sorry."

"It's ok." Cream beamed as they pulled apart before she looked up at her best friend with concern. "Sonic said you were a bit stressed lately. Is everything ok?"

Amy froze and went slightly pale, her jade green eyes widening momentarily before she plastered a very fake looking smile on her face. "I'm fine Cream. Never better."

"Are you sure Amy?" Sonic intervened, watching Amy closer through the whole conversation. "You're looking a little ill. Is there something you're not telling us?"

Amy bit her lip, her eyes scanned the room wildly and her ear twitched slightly. She wrapped her arms around herself again and began bouncing her knee.

"Now that you mention it. I am feeling a little ill. Would you excuse me?"

Sonic watched in a state of utter confusion as Amy ran inside the house. Everyone else who had suddenly noticed Amy's erratic behaviour also stared after her with concern sprouting on their features.

"Should I go after her?" Sonic wondered out loud to himself and was about to step towards the house before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around to see the jewel thief, Rouge the Bat, grinning saucily at him.

"Leave it to me big blue, this kind of behaviour needs a woman's touch."

Rouge released his shoulder, her features going completely blank as she followed Amy into the house before shutting the back door behind her.

"What do you think's wrong with her?" Cream asked.

Sonic sighed in concern as he continued to stare at the closed door, locking him out of the house and out of the truth as to what was going on.

"I have no idea Cream, but I wish I did."

The blue blur began to grow incredibly concerned over Amy's eccentric – well, more eccentric than usual – behaviour. What if…she really hadn't forgiven him? What if she'd just accepted his apology just to be nice? Sonic chewed on the ends of his fingers at the very thought. Or what if she was ill? Maybe Eggman had injected her with a horrible disease that was making Amy act all weird before it killed her slowly and painfully.

Of course now Sonic knew he was just being paranoid. He couldn't help it when it came to Amy though; she was so sweet, innocent, vulnerable and cute…ok he needed to stop.

"What's wrong Sonic?"

Tails' voice made Sonic jump and he quickly spun around to smile at his best friend.

"Oh nothing much, just worrying about Amy slightly."

Tails chuckled. "All you seem to be thinking and talking about lately is Amy." His blue eyes lit up with suspicion.

"What are you talking about? I'm just worried about her; she's been acting weird."

"Uh huh."

"What? Stop looking at me like that! You're creeping me out. Has everyone lost their minds recently? Sheesh!"

Tails watched with amused eyes as Sonic stormed off to the other side of the garden. "Or maybe you've just lost your heart Sonic."

The sudden loud, piercing scream of Vanilla caught everybody's attention. Sonic twisted around just in time to see Eggman burst out of the forest with the same giant robot he had fought in the city the other day.

"This is what you get for not inviting me to your party!" He bellowed.

"Doctor Eggman, anyone is welcome to the party, but if you're going to start being mean and hurt my friends then I won't let you join us." Cream sniffed as everyone got into a fighting stance.

Vanilla pulled Cream back just as the robot shot at her.

"HEY!" Sonic yelled, feeling his temper grow short. "We do not shoot innocent little girls Eggface!"

Sonic immediately jumped into action, homing attacking the robot to no effect. The robot knocked him out of the way. Sonic hit the ground with a loud thud before the robot started shooting at his other friends, completely ignoring the blue hedgehog.

Amy and Rouge burst out of the house and joined in the fight while Eggman just smiled at the scene, keeping a close eye on Sonic the entire time.

"You know, the way you have been watching me is starting to give me the creeps!" Sonic complained, but Eggman merely laughed.

Sonic was about to shout another sarcastic comment before he noticed Tails was stood directly in the robot's firing line.

"Tails watch out!" Sonic cried out in panic. He leaped up and shoved Tails out of the way just time, also just barely managing to avoid the laser himself.

"Thanks Sonic!" Tails smiled.

"Just be more careful next time." Sonic's voice dripped with deep concern.

Sonic twitched as Amy was also shot at, although this time, the robot's aim was terrible causing Sonic to release a sigh of relief.

"Stop attacking my friends!" He growled out. Sonic's anger boiled up like never before and he curled himself up into a spin attack.

Knuckles punched the robot's leg, knocking it off balance and Sonic went in for the kill. He dashed towards the robot, easily cutting right through it as if it was made out of butter. Landing gracefully behind it, the robot stood motionless as wires stuck out of the huge hole in the middle with sparks of electricity buzzing out in random directions. The robot then collapsed on itself before bursting into flames and everyone cried out in victory.

"But how did you cut through that! That was the most powerful alloy I have ever invented!" Eggman shrieked before twiddling his moustache in thought.

"You know you'll never beat me Eggman." Sonic let out an annoyed sigh before grinning cockily. "You never learn."

"Oh I'm learning, you pathetic pin cushion, and the day I finally conquer you is drawing near." Eggman laughed evilly as he began to fly away in his mech.

"We better go after him." Sonic announced as he began making his way to the Tornado that Tails had parked a few yards outside the house. "We need to find out what he's up to and stop him. His attacks are getting too frequent for my liking."

Tails, Knuckles and Amy joined him as they approached the airplane. They all hopped into their usual spots and Tails started the engine. However, instead of coming to life as normal, the engine made a pathetic clanking noise before dying completely.

Tails stared down in utter shock.

"What's going on?" Sonic demanded urgently as Eggman continued to get away.

"It can't be." Tails mumbled to himself, sounding like he was in a deep state of panic.

The little fox opened a compartment behind the steering wheel and gasped in terror when he saw that it was empty.

"The chaos emerald is gone!"

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	6. You've Been Hacked

**Hey guys, some IMPORTANT NEWS here! There's a poll on my profile as to whether or not I should start taking requests for Sonamy one-shots. I just think it could be fun, but I wanna know what you guys think. Should I do it or not? However if you want me to, there will be conditions: they have to be T appropriate and I have to feel like I can write them. They also have to be from the game, Sonic X or Sonic Boom universe as I'm not that familiar with the other universes. They can even be based on my other fanfictions if you like and credit will be given to the person who requested it. Don't give me an answer in a review because I'll lose track of the results; I need to see the numbers in the poll so give your answer there (unless you're an anonymous reviewer and are very passionate about your answer). If you have any further questions, please feel free to PM me anytime. I won't bite. If the answer yes comes out on top, then more information will be given. Feel free to suggest what the title of the collection of one-shots can be because I don't want something like 'sonamy one-shots'; plenty of people have done that one already. The poll closes next Saturday. Thanks! **

**Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter. I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>6: You've Been Hacked<strong>

"Stolen?" Sonic shrieked. "What do you mean stolen?"

"I mean someone took it!" Tails shrieked back, sounding incredibly stressed.

Sonic frowned. "I know what the word means buddy, but who could have done this? You flew here in the plane didn't you?"

"Yes, so it must've been stolen while we were at the party."

"Eggman." Knuckles immediately concluded and Tails shook his head slowly.

"I don't think so. Eggman was at the battle the whole time."

Sonic's frown deepened. "Could his attack have been a diversion while the real thief took the emerald?"

"Possibly. What do you think Amy?" Tails turned to the pink hedgehog who had remained quiet the whole time.

"Hmmm…if Sonic is right then Eggman might have teamed up with a new enemy."

"But who could that be?" Knuckles demanded, getting frustrated with the situation as Eggman continued to get away as they continued to argue over the missing emerald.

"I don't know Knuckles, it's just a theory!"

"Ok can we all calm down please?" Sonic's voice was soft as he waved his hands up and down, trying to keep the peace.

"Yeah well if Tails didn't solely rely on the chaos emeralds as a fuel source." Knuckles mumbled angrily and Tails' head snapped up.

"Hey, you want to have powerful machines don't you?"

"Who needs powerful machines when I can work effectively without them? Besides, the amount of power it gives off makes it incredibly easy to track and you left it _alone_. No wonder it was stolen so easily."

Knuckles and Tails got right up in each other's faces, glaring daggers as each other, baring their teeth. The hostility between them electrified the air around them. Sonic quickly jumped in between them and pushed them apart.

"I said can we all calm down." Sonic's voice was more of an order this time. Sonic, despite being the leader, never really liked to show authority or use it on anyone. But Sonic could sense that something was seriously wrong somewhere and he couldn't put his finger on it. Something was going on, something was happening and it was really started to eat away at Sonic as everything around him seemed to be acting weird. Knuckles and Tails fighting now was not helping.

"Look, it doesn't matter why the emerald was stolen for now. What is important is that we have to get it back. Now, Tails and I will head back to his workshop and try and track down Eggman's new base. Amy, help everyone out at the party and try and see if anyone knows anything and Knuckles –"

"I'll go back to the master emerald. This thief could be after that next." Knuckles huffed. "You're not telling _me_ what to do blue boy."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, whatever. Let's go."

Amy watched blankly as the other three left and sighed to herself as a dark layer of cloud covered the hot sun. The temperature suddenly dropped and the distant rumble of thunder could be heard as the spring storm rolled in. Amy reached into her pocket, clinging tightly to the green chaos emerald.

.

"Uhhh, with the chaos emerald gone, my equipment might only work at half the capacity." Tails moaned as he flew over Sonic, his tails spinning around rapidly, like a helicopter propeller.

Sonic ran slightly overhead as they made their way back to Tails' workshop. Once they arrived, Tails froze as he saw the mess that Amy and Sonic had made earlier when he'd tackled her over the desk. Sonic smiled at his friend nervously.

"I thought Amy was an intruder and we got into a bit of a fight."

Tails glared at the mess as he stepped over random tools and pieces of metal and wood. "I'll say. And you didn't think to clear up after yourselves?"

"We were more worried about getting to the party."

Tails sighed. "Whatever, let's just find Eggman's base."

He fired up his super computer and immediately began slamming his fingers against the keys, punching in numbers and symbols that Sonic felt like his brain might explode if Tails even attempted to explain what he was doing. It was so useful having a best friend with an IQ of 300 and rivalled his arch nemesis in intelligence. However Sonic smiled as he thought about how Tails would always have the advantage. Tails had common sense to match his intelligence; Eggman didn't.

"I don't believe this."

Sonic's hopes sunk and drowned in deep water as the defeat in Tails' voice registered.

"I can't track the emerald anywhere, something is jamming the system!"

"How is that even possible? I thought you virtually made your system un-hackable?" Sonic shrieked as he slammed his fists down on the desk next to Tails.

They both started at the screen in horror as static began to appear and the images became distorted. Sonic squinted and for a moment he could've sworn a very familiar 'G' symbol flashed on the screen for a split second before it cut to static again.

"Who could be doing this? Eggman has never been able to hack my system before!"

Sonic continued to glare at the screen as he clenched his fists on the desk as he stood stock still.

"I don't think Eggman is doing this. I think it might be our new enemy."

Tails whimpered slightly in fear at the intelligence that this person seemed to possess. The screen abruptly turned black before large green text appeared on the screen.

_You're not the only one who's good with computers fox cub. _

Tails nearly fell off his chair as he launched himself backwards in fear. Sonic could just imagine the smirk on this person's face, their words were heavily coated in their smugness and this only served to make Sonic angrier. His green eyes moved up to the webcam on the top of the computer screen.

"Whoever they are, they're watching us." Sonic glared at the lens. "Do you think you're being funny?! How did you hack us?"

Everything was dead silent for what felt like eternity. Sonic's eyes remained locked onto the webcam, knowing that he was staring at someone sat on the other side. Tails' eyes darted around in fear before he shuffled slightly closer to Sonic and away from the computer as the previous text deleted itself and new text typed itself onto the screen. Sonic's eyes widened slightly at the words.

_I'd stay out of this if I were you Sonic the Hedgehog._

"So this person clearly knows me." Sonic sneered at the screen as the static returned before the whole screen died with a crackling sound.

Tails began trying to revive the computer but to no effect.

"The whole thing has crashed." Tails sighed and leaned back in defeat. "I've disadvantaged us even further. I'm sorry Sonic. I wasn't careful enough – again."

Sonic placed a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "It's not your fault."

The blue hedgehog glared up at the webcam, wondering if this person could still be watching them. Were they laughing right now? What did they want?

"How could this person have hacked my computer?" Tails gasped out. "Not even Eggman could do it."

Sonic smirked at the new challenge. "Well no doubt we're going to find out."

Tails turned around and gazed at his messy workshop in confusion again.

"By the way, what were you and Amy doing in here?" Tails then smirked knowingly and Sonic just glared at him in confusion.

"Stop giving me that look!" Sonic snapped defensively. "Amy was just collecting that paperwork for you, I thought she was an intruder, we had a small fight before we both realised who each other was and then ran back to the party."

Tails' smirked faded back into a confused expression.

"What paperwork?"

"You know, the paperwork you wanted Amy to get."

Tails just continued to stare at Sonic who was beginning to feel slightly unnerved.

"Sonic…I never asked Amy to get anything."

"W-what?"

"I can assure you that whatever reason Amy was in here, it wasn't to get any paperwork for me. Are you sure that's what she said?" Tails asked.

Sonic answered without a moment's hesitation. "Yes, I'm positive because one dropped out of her pocket and she picked it up and that's when she told me."

"Do you know what she took?"

Sonic shook his head.

"I don't know what she'd want with my stuff." Tails mused as he rested his elbow on the desk and his head in his hand. "It's all just old projects and research that's in here. I can't think what Amy could possibly want with that junk."

"Hm, well Amy has been acting really weird lately." Sonic folded his arms as he frowned at the concrete wall behind Tails. Why would Amy steal a load of Tails' old research? And why didn't she just ask him? This wasn't like Amy at all. She was always so polite and would ask before simply just take something. Even though they were all pretty close friends and had a 'what's mine is yours' policy when it came to one another needing something, Amy wouldn't just take things and lie about it. She must have some sort of purpose. Was this another dating tactic? Sonic blushed at the thought before shaking it away. How could Tails' research help get him to date her? The thought made Sonic want to laugh out loud.

"We could always ask her?" Tails suggested and Sonic nodded.

"Yeah, I really need to get to the bottom of what's gotten into her lately. She's been so forgetful and skittish lately that it's starting to worry me."

Tails nodded in agreement.

"In the meantime, I'll try and fix this computer."

Sonic nodded back and dashed off back to the party where Amy was. The thunder continue to boom overhead and he prayed that it wouldn't start raining and make his life more difficult at this moment. He'd have to get her on her own and ask her as carefully as he could. He didn't want her to think that he didn't trust her, but Amy's behaviour was getting too weird to ignore. Why was Amy stealing random paperwork? Was she starting to go through some sort of rebellious phase? Had she become a kleptomaniac like Rouge? Sonic didn't see that being likely. Amy was too nice and sweet to become rebellious and knew she would have a good reason to result to stealing. He needed to know what she was had stolen and for what purpose before he jumped to any conclusions. With Amy you should never jump to conclusions or it may come back to hit you in the face. Probably literally in the case of Amy's huge, powerful hammer. That's one weapon you need to stay away from.

Sonic shuddered at the thought as he arrived back at Cream's house where everyone was helping to clean up.

"Mr Sonic!" Vanilla called in glee. "Did you catch up with Doctor Eggman? Is everything ok? Can I get you anything?" She fussed over him like an overprotective mother and Sonic declined as politely as possible, trying to spot any signs of his energetic pink friend.

"No thank you. Have you seen Amy?"

"She should be here somewhere." Vanilla smiled as she folded up a table cloth and Sonic dashed off to find his weird friend. He searched all over the backyard, but couldn't find any sign of her at all. Oh no. He hoped that she hadn't disappeared again. He ran inside the house through the back door that lead into the kitchen. Cream and Blaze were washing the dishes; Cream cleaning them and Blaze drying them with her pyrokinesis and putting them away.

"Girls, have you seen Amy…again?" Sonic asked, beginning to get really worried again.

Cream simply shook her head, but Blaze noticed the seriousness of Sonic's facial expression and placed the dish she was drying down, her hand losing its orange glow as she turned her powers off.

"Cream, could you excuse us for a moment." Blaze said, politely and as sophisticated as usual before gracefully walked towards Sonic.

"Sure thing Miss Blaze." Cream beamed, continue to scrub a dish.

Blaze led Sonic out of the kitchen and into the small dining room where Sonic shut the door behind them.

"Sonic, please tell me what's going on?" Blaze demanded, standing tall and poised while Sonic groaned in frustration and slumped down in a wooden chair.

"That's just it Blaze. I don't know." Sonic replied. "Amy's acting weird and I can't figure out what's going on. It seems she's stolen some of Tails' old paperwork and we can't figure out why."

Blaze thought for a moment. "What's on this paperwork?"

"I don't know." Sonic shrugged. "According to Tails, nothing of importance; just some old research."

"Could she be doing it just to get attention?"

"Why would she do that? She lied about it and tried to cover her actions so I highly doubt it."

Blaze sighed. "Well, I haven't known Amy as long as you guys have, but I know that the girl will always be a mystery to me."

Sonic abruptly stood up again as he decided he was wasting time just sitting around. He needed to find her. "Thanks for your help, but I really need to go and find her."

He turned to leave before he stopped himself and Blaze watched him patiently.

"I know this is a lot to ask," He began, "But could you do me a favour and stick around for a while. Something weird is going on and Tails just got hacked by our new enemy so it looks like we're going to need all the help we can get."

Blaze closed her eyes and nodded. "Of course."

Sonic gave her a small grateful smile before running out of the house to continue his search for Amy.

.

Knuckles stood tall and proud in front of the master emerald as he watched the sun set over the horizon of the floating island. So far, no one seemed to be attempting to steal the master emerald, but Knuckles wasn't prepared to leave anything to chance. Eggman's attacks were becoming more frequent and according to Amy, they were dealing with a new enemy. Knuckles didn't like the sound of that.

Arms folded across his chest and a hard expression on his face, the guardian didn't notice someone floating down behind him.

"My my, don't you look cute when you're trying to act like the tough guardian." A voice purred behind him and Knuckles gasped and turned around to see Rouge sitting on top of the master emerald, one leg crossed over the other and leaning back in complete relaxation.

"Hey, get away from that emerald you good for nothing jewel thief!"

"Is that the best you could come up with?" Rouge sighed as she leaned her face towards the sun's rays as it sat low in the sky. "Beautiful evening isn't it?"

"What do you want?" Knuckles demanded, clenching his fists ready for a fight. Rouge really knew how to push his buttons.

"Just stopped by for a friendly chat. Shadow has had me so busy lately that I just want some time to relax."

"You're still in contact with that creep?"

Rouge winked at him. "Do I detect a bit of jealousy?" She teased.

Knuckles' muzzle immediately turned as red as his fur before he huffed. "Yeah right, you're both criminal scum and as far as I'm concerned, you deserve each other."

Rouge shot him an offended look. "Fine. I see how it is. I come here to give you a warning and all you can do is be mean to me. What's a poor lady to do?"

Knuckles snorted. "You're no la – wait, what warning?"

Rouge smiled at him coyly before admiring her reflection in the emerald and flapped her wings slightly.

"I'm not even sure you deserve to know now."

"Enough games you stupid bat! What's going on?" Knuckles snapped impatiently.

"I love it when you beg - although without the childish name-calling." Rouge smirked. "But I've been told not to reveal anything, but I feel like you have the right to know at least something."

"Stop beating around the bush!"

Rouge glared at the sunset. "I suggest you and your friends be on your guard. It seems like Eggman has a new friend and favourite and he's planning something big with that person."

Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "Who's his new friend?"

Rouge shrugged as she stood up, preparing to fly away, stretching her wings out. "How should I know? Just be careful…Sonic especially."

Without another word, Rouge flew off into the sunset leaving Knuckles to think about Rouge's little warning.

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><p><strong>Anyone have any idea what's going on? Feel free to leave your thoughts. Also don't forget to vote!<strong>

**There may be a few extra mistake in this chapter as my laptop kept acting annoying while I was editing so sorry if you find any more frustrating errors than usual.**


	7. Enemy Amongst Us

**Thank you to those who have already voted. Keep them coming. Thank you so everyone who reviewed and I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>7: Enemy Amongst Us <strong>

"Boss, Amy has arrived." Orbot announced to Eggman as he sorted out some paperwork on his desk.

Eggman looked up, his glasses shining in the low lighting and smiled. "Excellent. Send her in."

Orbot nodded and opened the thick metal door to let Amy through. The pink hedgehog walked in with a neutral expression as she began pulling things out of the pockets of her red dress and brought them towards Eggman, placing them down on the desk. The evil scientist smiled down at the chaos emerald and the papers Amy had collected and inspected them closer.

"You have done well my dear. With these items, I'll be able to get that blue pest once and for all and you'll finally have your revenge."

"Yes yes, I've heard all this before." Amy muttered, sounding bored. "How exactly do all of these items help get Sonic though?"

Eggman unfolded the paper containing the analysis of Super Sonic, ignoring Amy's question and hummed to himself in thought as he skim read it. Amy watched him impatiently, her eyes narrowing.

"Hellooooo?" Amy growled out. "We're supposed to be partners in this and you're keeping me totally in the dark!"

Eggman chuckled. "That's the thing with project darkness…it's very…_dark._" He laughed louder this time and Amy looked at him like he'd gone mad.

"But what is this project? You said that we're working together and you're not telling me anything!"

His laughing ceased abruptly and he glared down at the fuming pink hedgehog. He stood up from his chair and leaned over the desk to glare down at her. Amy stayed still, unflinching as she met his glare.

"Who said anything about equal partners?" He sneered. "You said you'd work for me and work for me you shall. You will ask no questions and I will only reveal information if necessary in order for this plan to work. Unless there's something you're not telling me?"

Amy maintained her furious expression. "Well clearly you're keeping a lot of things from me. What does project darkness have to do with Sonic and taking over the world?"

"Tsk tsk…you will not question my orders or visions. We had a deal." Eggman leaned back again, but his annoyed stare never left her as he linked his fingers together over his stomach, twiddling his thumbs.

Amy didn't reply, not wanting to push her luck anymore.

"So full of anger and revenge." Eggman noted as he picked up the chaos emerald and inspected it. "You are definitely making a valuable asset and soon my dear, you will be able to have your way with Sonic."

Amy smirked.

"Do they suspect you?"

"I'm not sure." Amy replied. "They seem to know something weird is going on, Sonic especially, but they haven't been able to connect it all together yet. I've led them to believe that you have partnered up with a new powerful enemy."

"But what of the chaos emerald? I'm surprised that they haven't managed to track it down yet and when I tried to access Tails' software, it seemed that it had already crashed."

"Oh yeah?"

"Come now Amy I know that couldn't have been you that did that."

Amy began sweating nervously. "And what makes you think I couldn't have done something like that? Maybe I happened to know Tails' password."

Eggman stared at her without moving for a few seconds before he seemed to accept her answer. He placed the glowing green emerald back down on the desk and placed the papers she had given him into the same mysterious file that she had now seen many times; its secrets still unknown to her. It was having an almost Pandora's box effect on Amy as she stared at the deep purple file in Eggman's large gloved hands. His plans for Sonic's ultimate defeat were hidden in those collection of papers.

"You can stare at it all you want my dear. All will be revealed when the time is right." Eggman spoke without looking at her as he carefully tucked the file away in the drawer of his desk.

"But I want to know how you plan to defeat him." Amy whined.

"Your eagerness is to be admired, but I'm not planning to kill him if that's what you're thinking." Eggman smirked and Amy stared at him in confusion.

"Huh?"

Eggman's smirk widened as he continued to stare at her. "And I think I may have finally found the key to project darkness finally becoming a reality."

.

It had been hours since Amy had vanished and Sonic was beginning to grow even more concerned. His pink friend was nowhere to be seen and the storm was getting even closer; the thunder boomed louder and a few flashes of lightening could be seen on the horizon. The wind was picking up, blowing leaves and twigs in Sonic's face as he ran. He did not want to be caught out in this, but he didn't want to abandon his search for Amy either. If she had disappeared without an explanation, then something had to be wrong.

Sonic ran past Amy's house for the fifth time and mentally slapped himself as he realised that he'd forgot to check inside. He skidded to a halt and ran back, hopping over her garden fence and went straight to the window, cupping his hand around his eyes as he peeked through.

Nothing.

The house was dark and empty and Sonic sighed as he pulled away from the window. He felt like all his did lately was worry about Amy.

His little blue ear twitched as he heard what sounded like footsteps echoing down the cobbled pathway and Sonic quickly jumped into the nearby tree and peeked through the leaves to see who was coming.

He sighed with relief once he realised it was Amy and was about to jump down and greet her when he realised that she was on the phone. Straining his ears, Sonic leaned out of the tree slightly so he could listen better, but could still only pick up bits and pieces of the conversation she was having.

"Understood…yes I'll be there...see you then." Amy said as she listened to what the person on the other end had to say before hanging up and began walking towards her front door.

The branch Sonic was holding onto creaked and he instantly knew he was in trouble. Before he could react, the branch snapped and Sonic tumbled out of the tree and landed clumsily, face first on the ground in front of a very surprised Amy.

"Gah!" Amy shrieked as she jumped back in fright before relaxing once she realised it was just Sonic.

"Sonic, what the hell were you doing in my tree?!"

Sonic pushed himself off the ground and looked at her seriously. "Looking for you if you must know."

"In my tree?"

"Yes, NO!" Sonic stuttered as he struggled to say something that made sense, blushing slightly as Amy looked at him weirdly.

"Well, ok then," Amy brushed it off, "That storm is getting closer, wanna stay at mine for a bit?"

Sonic smiled. This was the perfect opportunity to find out what was going on with her.

"Sure, that would be great!" He beamed at her and Amy unlocked her door before leading him inside.

He followed her into the living room where she lit the fire and collapsed on the couch.

"Wow, what a day." Amy sighed. "Eggman sure likes to keep us on our toes huh?"

Great, Amy had opened the topic up for him. Sonic smiled at the thought as he sat down next to her and leaned back, trying to look as relaxed and casual as possible.

"Yeah," Sonic agreed, "Oh by the way did you manage to get any information off the others?" He asked suspiciously.

"No, no one knew anything. Still no sign of the chaos emerald?"

Sonic shook his head. "I don't understand how this person took the emerald from right under our noses. Then Tails' computer got hacked today. I don't know who could've done that. You'd have to be some sort of super lifeform in order to get past Tails and his brains when it comes to technology."

Amy laughed a little nervously. "Yeah."

"Whoever it was, really didn't want us to find the emerald or the thief. Looks like your theory was right about someone working with Eggman. But why? And what do they want?"

Amy shrugged. "Probably the same as every other bad guy we've faced: world domination."

"Well they're going to have to get through me first." Sonic smirked before he realised he's gone slightly off topic. "Speaking of Tails…did you manage to deliver his paperwork ok?" He asked, throwing her a coy smile.

Amy didn't look at him as she suddenly found her fingers in her lap more interesting all of a sudden. "Yeah."

"Hmm…he wasn't too happy with the mess we'd made."

Amy shot him a glare. "You mean the mess you'd made. You're the one who attacked me."

Sonic rolled his eyes before looking back at her and realised that she still looked slightly pale like she was earlier. "Hey, are you ok? You're not still sick are you? You look kinda pale still."

Amy rubbed her face self-consciously. "Yeah, I guess I'm just stressed, what with Eggman and everything."

"You don't have to fight with us you know." Sonic offered softly, sad that it was affecting her health. Even though he knew Amy would never back down from battle, he almost secretly hoped that she would – then she would be out of harm's way. He could not believe he had just thought of that…

"No I want to." Amy said determinedly. "If Eggman's up to something then I want to help stop him. He ruined Cream's party!"

Sonic continued to gaze at her thoughtfully. He knew Amy well enough to know that she was hiding something. He needed to find out. What he needed to do now was keep a better eye on her. Clearly trying to make her slip up in conversation wasn't working. He knew if he flat out asked her then that would get him nowhere either, so Tails' idea was out the window. Amy was stubborn and would just deny everything. He needed to catch her in the act.

The rain suddenly began hammering down on the house and the sudden sound of thunder clapping directly over the house made them both jump slightly. But it didn't prevent Sonic from forming an idea.

"Hey, why don't we hang out tomorrow? We had fun last time right?" He asked and Amy's eyes lit up before they dimmed as she thought about his request.

"What is it?"

"Oh Sonic I'd love nothing more, but I have to be somewhere tomorrow."

"What? All day?"

Amy nodded. "Pretty much. Maybe the next day?"

"Sure." Sonic mumbled sourly, unable to shake the sudden feeling of disappointment. Why had that rejection stung him so bad?

What was she hiding?

"Where do you need to be anyway?" Sonic demanded a little too harshly and Amy's eyes widened at his tone slightly. He was starting to sound like a child who couldn't get his own way.

"Oh…just meeting up with an old friend."

"What old friend?"

Why was she being so secretive about this? _What if it was a date? _Sonic's heart rate picked up in panic at the thought. Maybe that was why she was acting so weird with him. She'd turned her attention onto someone else and now she didn't like him anymore. No, Amy wouldn't do that. She'd been in love with him since they were kids and that wouldn't change now…would it? No! Who was this person? Were they a creep? Did they pressure Amy into dating them? It felt like some sort of monster inside Sonic was forcing its way out at the thought of Amy in someone else's arms. Amy looking up to them as her hero instead of Sonic. He would be forgotten about. She would no longer be his…

Sonic growled lowly to himself at these thoughts. Why was he having them in the first place? Was he really in any position to be territorial? Amy wasn't his. She was his friend and his protective instincts took over…right? He had never really felt that kind of anger before…it was awful. He pushed it down as best he could but the thought of Amy in another man's arms kept making him want to do something irrational.

Who was he to jump to the conclusion that she was going on a date? It wasn't his business. Amy could do whatever she wanted. It was her life. Besides, if she had a date then he was sure that Amy would be shouting it from the rooftops.

But if it was date…who could it be? And why keep it a secret?

Amy sighed, oblivious to his sudden internal conflict. "Sonic, I get the feeling I've done something to offend you. You've been acting weird all day."

_That makes two of us, _Sonic thought bitterly as he folded his arms at how difficult Amy was making this. But Sonic bit his tongue at the urge to retaliate with that remark. "Oh I'm fine and you haven't done anything. I guess I'm also stressed."

Amy seemed to be fooled by this excuse and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder which sent pleasant tingles through his body. Great, that weird feeling was back. Only this time he was trapped with it. He couldn't run away. There was nowhere to run to due to the weather and also, he could jeopardise the opportunity to find out what was wrong with Amy. He would just have to deal with it and try and repress the strange feelings.

"Aww, Sonic if you're feeling stressed you know you can talk to me anytime you want."

Sonic rolled his eyes at her concern and angled his body more towards hers, both unaware that they had unconsciously shuffled closer together on the couch.

"Don't worry about it." Sonic reassured her. "Right now we need to focus on what Egghead is up to and stop him. He keeps taking notes of everything I do and it's starting to irritate me."

"Don't worry about it. He's probably just looking for ways to defeat you, but he never will."

Sonic's ego inflated at Amy words and he smirked at her. "Thanks Amy. You always know exactly what to say. The team would be lost without you."

Amy smiled shyly as they still both hadn't realised that they were still moving closer together; their noses almost touching as they stared into each other's eyes.

"Thanks." She said softly.

Sonic had never felt this way before as he failed to register what Amy had said. His lips tingled as they ached to be pressed against hers and he felt drawn to her like she was a powerful magnet, slowly pulling him in. He had completely forgotten why he was even here in the first place. It didn't matter now. It was like she had cast a spell on him and he was now hypnotised; completely in her power. He didn't care in that moment. He unexpectedly found himself _wanting_ to belong to her. Involuntary, his eyes began to slowly close as he tilted his face to meet hers. The sudden, unexplainable, aching thirst for her was soon promised to be quenched and all he had to do was lean closer…closer…

_BOOM!_

A bright flash of lightning and a deafening roar of thunder forced them to jump apart with a gasp. Their lips, once a millimetre away, were what now felt like miles apart and Sonic shook his head in an attempt to clear his head of the enticing scent that was Amy…he couldn't believe he was even thinking like that.

Sonic's eyes widened slightly as his behaviour suddenly registered. Was he about to kiss her? Was he about to _kiss Amy Rose?! _

No.

That couldn't be it.

He felt flushed at the thought. Maybe he was tried? Maybe he was losing it! He'd take any medical diagnosis right now because he was _not _just about to kiss Amy Rose. That was impossible!

He shyly looked over at Amy from the corner of his eye to see her switching on the TV and pretending that nothing had just happened – thankfully. He didn't know what he'd do if she'd questioned his actions. Was she just as embarrassed? Or was he overthinking the situation and nothing had actually happened?

He didn't know. He'd never been in this kind of situation before. The thought of something like this happening had never once crossed his mind. So why now? What had changed? Had anything changed? He needed to stop asking questions and try and calm down.

Sonic took a few deep breaths as he stared at the TV as Amy tried to flick through the channels, still refusing to look at her properly out of embarrassment. He hid his face behind a cushion slightly as he knew he was bound to be bright red. His face got even hotter at the thought of Amy catching him blushing at what had just happened. He didn't want her getting the wrong idea.

Amy groaned. "Looks like the signal is down due to the storm." She moaned as the 'no signal' sign came up for every single channel she passed. "Do you wanna watch a movie or something?"

"Sure, I don't mind." Sonic mumbled a little too quickly from behind the cushion. He felt like it was the only thing offering him comfort and safety in this moment. He wanted to run. His legs ached so badly. The need to get out of there burned in his entire body, but he couldn't go anywhere. The storm was too bad and he needed to stay in Amy's good books if he was going to find out what she was up to…what if it _is _a date? _Shut up!_

_I don't care!_

"What do you feel like watching?" Amy asked, blissfully unaware of Sonic's inner turmoil as he clung tighter to the cushion like a lifeline.

"I don't know, you choose."

Amy ended picking something at random. They both really didn't seem to be watching it anyway as they both stared in different directions, in their own little worlds. However, they finally both managed to relax again as the evening progressed before towards the end of the film, they both passed out, sound asleep against each other.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions and don't forget to feel free to leave your vote on my profile. <strong>


	8. Espionage

**Thanks for the reviews everybody. Also my poll is a tie right now so, yeah please vote to rectify that. **

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>8: Espionage <strong>

Sonic's eyes gently fluttered open and he began involuntary sniffing the air as the sweet smell of pancakes filled the air. He sat up and the memories of yesterday flooded back. He was still on Amy's couch, only a blanket had now been draped over him and Amy was missing, obviously now in the kitchen. He yawned and stretched and the memory of their near kiss forced itself front and centre of his brain and he cringed back.

"I see sleeping beauty is finally awake." Amy joyfully exclaimed as she walked into the room, carrying a plate of pancakes. "I thought you'd never wake up."

"Why what time is it?" Sonic asked as he rubbed his eyes, still feeling a little groggy instead of his usual refreshed feeling. Wow, he must be stressed. He noticed Amy still looked a little on edge. She was less pale than she was yesterday, but she still looked slightly off.

"Almost half ten." Amy smiled as she handed him the plate. "Pancakes?"

Sonic's mouth watered and he couldn't say no. "Thanks."

He took the plate off her and immediately began wolfing them down and Amy rolled her eyes as she backed out of the room.

"I just need to head upstairs and grab something and then I need to get going." Amy announced before dashing upstairs.

Sonic's heart sank as he remembered that Amy was 'busy' today. He swallowed a huge mouthful and immediately lost his appetite as his previous paranoia about what Amy was doing washed back over him, making him feel like he was drowning. There had to be a way to find out what she was up to. His gaze wandered around the room and his eyes soon zeroed in on her phone that was sat on a small coffee table in the corner next to the front door.

Should he?

It felt wrong and invasive, but Amy was definitely up to something. He needed to find out. And she seemed to be having continuous intense conversations with someone. He cast his mind back to when he first came round here, how startled she was when he caught her arguing with someone on the phone. She never said who it was. Just something about a surprise for Vanilla or something. She kept mysteriously disappearing without any proper explanation, she had stolen from Tails so could she have…? No. She couldn't have stolen the chaos emerald. Why would she do something like that? Besides, the thief had managed to cover their tracks by crashing Tails computer. There was no way in the world Amy could've managed that. She didn't even know Tails' password and hated doing anything technical with a passion. So it couldn't have been her.

Now he felt incredibly horrible for suspecting Amy of such a thing.

Again, he thought about the conversation he overheard last night. She was indeed meeting up with someone. But who? And why was she being so enigmatic about it?

His mind was made up as he ran over and grabbed her phone. She had a new message from a number he didn't recognise. Narrowing his eyes, he opened the message and read it to himself, the contents confusing him even more.

_Don't forget the recordings._

_- A.S _

Recordings? And who the hell was A.S? It must stand for something. He looked through her history of texts, thanking Amy's laziness that she hadn't deleted all of them. The previous one was from yesterday around the time she disappeared.

_Meet me in the usual place. Tomorrow. 1pm. _

_- A.S _

Well this person sure seemed bossy and blunt. Sonic gasped at a sudden horrific thought: what if she was in some sort of controlling, abusive relationship? Was that why she was looking so ill lately? It was all beginning to make sense. He just needed visual proof because Amy sure as hell wasn't going to admit to this. He felt sick at the very thought of Amy cowering in fear as this guy ordered her around, making her do things she didn't want to do. He had to save her.

Footsteps coming down the stairs forced Sonic to quickly exit her messages, slam her phone down on the table and run back over to the couch where he pretended to be just getting up as Amy appeared. She picked up her phone and placed it in her pocket before she turned to smile at Sonic who was fidgeting nervously. Her smile dropped once she picked up on his behaviour.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked full of concern. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"Oh no no, I'm good." Sonic cringed at how nervous his voice sounded before he headed towards the front door where Amy was waiting.

As he passed her on his way out he quickly turned back to her.

"You know you are allowed to say 'no', right?" Sonic said, seemingly out of nowhere to Amy.

Amy's eyes widened in surprise before she giggled slightly. "Sonic, where did that come from?"

Sonic's quills twitched in embarrassment, clenching his fists to restrain the urge to just pick her up and hide her from this creep.

"You know, in case anyone tried to control you."

Amy sneered. "Nobody controls Amy Rose. I don't know where you're getting this from."

Sonic let out a light sigh of relief. Maybe he had misunderstood slightly. Amy was right. She would never let anybody control her and would always stand up for herself as people often greatly underestimate her. He felt bad for doubting her.

But that still didn't solve the mystery of who her date was. Sonic mentally slapped himself for jumping to that conclusion as the same unpleasant feeling from the night before began clawing against his rib cage again. Sonic did his best to keep a smile on his face as they both walked down the street together before they got ready to part ways.

"Well, last night was fun." She smiled, lightly brushing her fingers against her lips before she looked down shyly. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya." Sonic said a little more harshly than he intended as he struggled to oppress those weird feelings. He slapped a hand over his mouth, but luckily Amy hadn't seemed to notice, or at least pretended not to, as she walked down a separate road towards the outskirts of Station Square.

Sonic watched her form disappear from view before he took off towards Tails' workshop to check in on how he was doing. Whilst he was running, he tried to figure out a way to find out what Amy was up to. He came up blank and soon he was opening the door to Tails' workshop to find that he cleaned the place up and was now furiously working on his computer to try and restore everything.

"Any luck buddy?" Sonic asked as he stopped to stand next to the little fox.

Tails sighed. "Some. I've managed to get it back on, but now it's just the case of trying to restore everything. Whoever it was that hacked me sure knew what they were doing. By the way did you ask Amy about those papers?"

"Ummm."

"You didn't." Tails groaned.

"Well I tried to get some information out of her, but she wouldn't budge!"

"I'm willing to bet that you didn't ask her directly."

Sonic huffed. "I decided in the end to take a more sneaky approach. I asked if she managed to get those papers to you and she lied and said that she did. She lied to me Tails. Lied to me! I don't know what's going on with her right now. Amy's never been like this before. I'm getting seriously worried."

Tails looked up at him sympathetically. "I'm sure she's fine, she has to have her reasons."

"Then why hasn't she talked to us about it?" Sonic shrieked. "We're her friends."

"Sonic, it's just a few pieces of paper. They wouldn't have been important. I'll figure out which papers she stole later, but right now I'm just trying to get this computer fixed."

Sonic sighed as he collapsed on a bench at the back of the workshop, daydreaming as Tails worked.

"By the way where you last night? What took you so long?" Tails asked after a few minutes of silence before taking a sip of his drink.

"Umm, oh, I just spent the night at Amy's." Sonic tried to answer as nonchalantly as possible.

Tails choked and spat out his drink, droplets of soda sprayed all over his keyboard and computer screen before he turned around to gaze at his best friend in shock. Tails felt like he had misheard him.

"You spent the night at Amy's?" He choked out in disbelief. "What happened?"

Sonic blushed, looking away and he knew that just made himself look worse. "Nothing happened! I just kinda fell asleep there without realising."

"Uhhh, I need those fifty rings." Tails groaned as he face palmed.

Sonic's head snapped back around to glare at Tails. "What fifty rings?"

Tails blue eyes widened as he clamped a hand over his mouth. "Oh nothing, it doesn't matter."

"Tails!"

"It's just ummm…some stupid bet that Knuckles and I have…nothing important."

"A bet on what?!" Sonic had a feeling he knew where this was going.

Tails smiled apologetically. "Oh just when you're going to admit your feelings for Amy." He finally admitted and cringed back as Sonic stared at him with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open.

Tails was worried that he had shocked Sonic into a catatonic state before Sonic seemed to suddenly re-start and he glared at his best friend.

"Oh real mature guys." He sulked. "And I do not have feelings for Amy."

Tails rolled his eyes, deciding not to get into that argument and went back to work.

"Besides I think Amy has lost interest in me."

Tails couldn't help but pick out the sadness in Sonic's tone and turned back around to face him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well this guy seems to keep texting her and ringing her. I don't know who it is, but they are clearly keeping Amy occupied right now. I'm willing to bet that that's why she keeps disappearing; she's in a secret relationship."

Tails chuckled at Sonic's theory. "Sonic, I highly doubt Amy is in a secret relationship. She always wears her heart on her sleeve so if she was in love with someone else then we'd most likely know about it and to be honest I can't see her moving on from you so I think you're still safe." He smirked.

Sonic shot him a warning glare before he decided not to retaliate. "I'm being serious! I read through her texts this morning!" He ignored Tails' disapproving frown. "Someone called A.S keeps contacting her."

"A.S?"

"Do you know them?" Sonic asked hopefully.

"No." Tails replied, looking confused and Sonic's hopes deflated. "But that certainly is strange."

"Therefore, Amy is in a secret relationship." Sonic concluded as his teeth locked together in anger. The unpleasant emotion threatening to boil over to the point where Sonic wanted to go on some sort of angry rampage. Whoever this person was would never be good enough for Amy. They seemed really demanding in their text messages, causing Sonic to have an instant dislike of them. He began shaking at the thought of Amy in some mystery person's embrace again.

"Somebody sounds a bit jealous." Tails mumbled not intending for Sonic to hear.

"I AM NOT JEALOUS!" He yelled, sounding slightly hysterical, causing Tails to flinch back slightly. "I just don't want some creep getting anywhere near her."

"Sure Sonic, keep telling yourself that." Tails sighed. "Seems to me that you do have feelings for her after all."

"I don't!"

"Don't what?" A deep voice asked behind them and Sonic and Tails both turned to see Knuckles walking through the door.

"Oh great that's all I need!" Sonic moaned. "Now you can all gang up on me. Go on then Knuckles. Give me your best shot."

Knuckles shot Tails a confused look as he took a cautious step away from Sonic.

"What's up with him?"

Tails laughed. "He found out about our bet."

Knuckles laughed with him. "Oh really?" He shot Sonic a sly look who folded his arms and began tapping his foot.

"Which none of you are going to win because I'm not in love with Amy." Sonic snapped, although his mind kept drifting back to that near kiss and his heart began to race as fast as his feet.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Yeah keep telling yourself that. But I didn't come here to tease you."

"Then what do you want? Don't you have some massive emerald to guard?" Sonic huffed, feeling on edge again.

"I came to pass on a message from Rouge." Knuckles stated seriously.

"Rouge?" Tails repeated her name in confusion.

"She told me to tell you to watch your back Sonic." Knuckles explained. "That Eggman has this new partner and they're planning something big."

"How does she know that? Rouge isn't exactly the most trustworthy person." Sonic frowned.

"I don't know." Knuckles growled at him. "She just told me to warn you."

Sonic just chuckled. "Well I'm grateful for her concern, but I think I'll be fine."

"I don't know Sonic." Tails said nervously. "It must be serious if even Rouge is worried."

"Yeah well right now my main concern is finding out what's wrong with Amy."

Tails and Knuckles both exchanged a mischievous smile.

"That doesn't mean I'm in love with her!" Sonic snapped before he decided to ignore them as he thought about a way to catch Amy out on whatever it was she was doing. He looked at the clock hung up on the wall. 12pm. That gave him an hour until she had to meet up with her mysterious partner. He needed to find out who her date was. There was only one way he could do it.

"I'm going to follow her to this date of hers." Sonic announced and Tails and Knuckles stared at him in shock.

"You're going to spy on Amy?" Knuckles laughed.

"Sonic, no!" Tails scolded. "It's bad enough you looked through her phone, now this?"

"He what? Looked through her phone?" Knuckles laughed louder. "Boy have you got it bad Sonic."

Sonic just glared at the hysterical red echidna before turning to Tails.

"I have no choice Tails."

"Yes you do! Talk to her like I said before."

"No, she'll just deny everything. Besides how can I trust what she says after all the lies she has obviously been telling us these past few days. I'm telling you, she's hiding something and I'm going to find out what. Does Amy still have her tracker, you know, the ones you installed in us in case of emergencies?"

"Well, yes, but – "

"Perfect!" Sonic smiled as he made his way back over to Tails' computer.

"But Sonic, the tracking system crashed, remember?" Tails sighed in annoyance.

"Dammit." Sonic growled.

"Well, where did you last see her?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic thought back to when they parted that morning. "She was heading towards Station Square."

"Then try there first."

"Don't encourage him!" Tails shrieked at Knuckles. "This is total invasion of Amy's privacy and it's not right."

Sonic sighed. "I appreciate what you're trying to say buddy, but there's something seriously wrong with Amy and I need to find out what it is."

"I'm coming with you, this should be hilarious." Knuckles laughed again and Sonic just rolled his eyes.

"While we look for Amy, Tails you need to get this computer working again. Look at Amy's tracker and see if you can find out where she's been disappearing to. Don't give me that look! I know it's an invasion of privacy and you promised to only do such a thing in an emergency, but my mind is never going to rest until I find out what exactly it is she's been doing. Also, see if you can figure out what paperwork she stole. That might offer some more clues." Sonic ordered before Tails finally sighed and nodded in agreement.

Sonic smiled at the fox before he turned to head towards Station Square.

"Come on then Knuckles. I actually wouldn't mind the help." Sonic said before they both took off towards the city.

They arrived on the outskirts of the city where Sonic had last seen Amy and they both looked around in all directions.

"This is like going to be looking for a tiny pink needle in a giant haystack." Knuckles grumbled. "But your reaction to whatever she's up to should be totally worth it."

"Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate." Sonic hissed.

"Just follow your heart Sonic." Knuckles put on a high pitched girly voice.

Sonic took a deep breath to stop himself from turning around and strangling the irritating echidna. They walked further into the city, trying to look past the busy shoppers and tourists, hoping to catch sight of a little pink hedgehog, but crowds of humans and anthropomorphic animals going about their daily lives were preventing them from making any progress. They weaved in and out of many different streets and Sonic began to grow frustrated when he saw that the time was approaching 1pm on the giant clock of the city hall.

"Maybe she went somewhere else?" Knuckles said as they made their way back towards the outskirts of the city. "Let's just face it, you're never going to find her."

Sonic's tense frown deepened as he refused to give up. They passed by a busy outdoor café and Sonic froze when something pink caught his eye. Sonic's stop was so abrupt that Knuckles collided into him, knocking them both down onto the concrete sidewalk.

"What are you doing?" Knuckles snapped as he climbed off the top of Sonic to stand up and brush himself off.

Sonic quickly stood up, his eyes drifting back to that same spot, hoping with everything that he had that his eyes had not been deceiving him. Sure enough, there she was. Sitting alone on a table in the corner of the café, reading a notebook was Amy.

The blue hedgehog pointed without saying a word and Knuckles followed his finger to where the pink hedgehog was. They could just about make out that she was frowning in concentration a few feet away.

"No way!" Knuckles smirked. "That was lucky."

"Come on, we need to get closer and find out what she's doing." Sonic said. He knew he couldn't get too close to the café otherwise they would be spotted.

Knuckles followed him as he ran passed a crowd of people and dived into one of the neatly trimmed bushes nearest to Amy's table. Sonic made a small gap between the branches, feeling like all he did lately was use nature as a hiding place, and kept his eyes locked on the back of Amy's form. She was completely oblivious to them as she carried on reading and although he couldn't see her face, Sonic was more focused on seeing the face of the person that she was meeting up with.

"So, I wonder who Amy's date is." Knuckles snickered and Sonic smacked him on the back of the head.

"Be quiet or she could hear us." Sonic hushed him as he pulled the branches back again.

"Don't smack me!" Knuckles growled. "It's not my fault that you're jealous."

"I am not jealous." Sonic hissed through clenched teeth as he waited with agitated anticipation for this mysterious A.S to arrive.

"Whoa!" Knuckles gasped out suddenly, in a state of absolute shock and Sonic nearly ripped the branches apart and just about contained the yelp of fear for Amy's safety as 'A.S' walked through the small gateway that led to the café and sat down opposite Amy.

It couldn't be…

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	9. Mystery Date

**Thank you for the reviews! I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>9: Mystery Date<strong>

"I'll kill him!" Sonic hissed as he grinded his teeth together in anger. He was about to leap out of the bush before Knuckles grabbed him and pinned him in place.

"What do you think you're doing?" Knuckles asked in irritation. "You'll blow our cover."

"As oppose to say what?!" Sonic shrieked in panic. "Leaving Amy alone with _him._"

Knuckles smirked down at him. "Are you sure you're not just jealous?"

Sonic huffed as he looked over to where Amy was sitting, having a deep conversation with none other than Shadow the Hedgehog; his arch rival. Why him, Amy? Anyone but him. Was she doing it on purpose? Was she dating Shadow just to get to him? Sonic's breathing picked up in fear as he began to question what Shadow was getting out of this? Shadow was a cold hearted, vindictive, conniving little creep and Amy was too good to hang out with the likes of him. He was a criminal. He was a lunatic!

"So A.S must've stood for Agent Shadow." Sonic growled out while Knuckles' amethyst eyes darted between Sonic and Amy in amusement. "She's been meeting up with Shadow in secret."

"Well…that was unexpected." Knuckles chuckled.

"This isn't funny. I'm still going to kill him!"

Knuckles tightened his grip on the blue hedgehog again. "Chill out you jealous hog."

Sonic didn't pay attention as he longed to feel Shadow's neck locked in his tight hands as he strangled the life out of him for bullying Amy around. If he dared lay one finger on her then…then…Sonic began shaking at his irrational thoughts. The only thing that was protecting that creep right now was Knuckles' strength to keep Sonic pinned in place as he glared daggers at Shadow who had begun reading Amy's notebook.

"I can't believe this secret date of hers is Shadow…" Sonic gasped out as he felt a large lump form in his throat. He felt the sudden hatred of Shadow suddenly fade away as he felt like Amy had betrayed him. Wait…why was she betraying him? They weren't together. Sonic mentally slapped himself to try and keep his sanity intact. But the thought of her…in Shadow's arms…it made him feel like he wanted to vomit. Shadow was crazy, unstable and could kill her with one tiny anger outburst. All Amy had to do was say the wrong thing and then BAM. That would be it.

Sonic could feel himself turning pale at the thought.

"You ok there?" Knuckles asked sounding slightly alarmed as he witnessed all the colour drain out of his friend.

Sonic nodded slowly without saying a word as he tried to dispose of the horrific image of Amy lying lifeless on the ground…all colour drained from her, her eyes cold and dead and her body covered in blood from Shadows unstable power.

Knuckles peered through the branches again as he watched Shadow and Amy converse with each other. Neither one was smiling as Amy pointed something out in her notebook before Shadow nodded, keeping his eyes on whatever it was that was written down. Sure, they were sitting quite close, but there didn't seem to be anything love-y dove-y in this situation. It looked too…business like.

"To be honest, it looks too serious to be a date." Knuckles noted and Sonic's ears perked up.

"What do you mean?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Well just look at them. It looks like they're discussing business."

Sonic's head snapped up to peered through the branches again next to Knuckles and he had to agree with what he had said.

"Uh, if only we could hear what they were talking about." Sonic complained as he leaned his head closer to see if he could pick anything up, but the noise from other people in the café completely masked Shadow and Amy's conversation.

"If it's not a date, then why is she hanging around with a creep like Shadow?" Knuckles questioned.

Sonic shrugged, a deep frown forming on his face. "I don't know, but Shadow is too friendly with Eggman for my liking." He suddenly gasped. "What if he's got Amy doing bad things?"

"I highly doubt that Sonic." Knuckles sighed.

"No, but think about it. Amy has been acting strange for days. She keeps disappearing and lying to us and then yesterday she stole some of Tails' things." Sonic tried to explain.

Knuckles' eyes widened. "Really? Huh. That sure doesn't sound like Amy."

"Exactly! Maybe Shadow's brainwashed her or something…" Sonic mused. "Wait a second…"

"What is it?" Knuckles asked, not liking the look on Sonic's face.

"What if they're both doing Eggman's dirty work?"

"Ok, now you're just being stupid."

"No, but think about it. I upset Amy, she disappears and then when I find her again she's acting weirder than ever. She's been acting really different towards me lately. She hasn't been chasing me, pestering me and she even forgot that we were supposed to hang out the other evening."

"Bet that must've hurt your ego." Knuckles smirked, but Sonic ignored him and continued.

"Then she disappears again around the same time the chaos emerald was stolen." Sonic's heart rate began picking up in horror as everything was beginning to add up. "She also steals some of Tails paperwork and lies to me about it and now we find out she's been meeting up with Shadow behind our backs and seems to be doing business with him. Plus, Rouge did warn us that Eggman has a new partner and she's pretty close with Shadow."

"Do you have any idea what you're accusing Amy of right now?" Knuckles' eyes narrowed in disbelief.

"What if Shadow and Eggman have tricked Amy into working for them?" Sonic gasped. "I'm not saying its Amy's fault, they probably forced her into it. That's why she's been looking so ill lately!"

"But Rouge works for GUN and works against Eggman. She hates him." Knuckles pointed out. "I'm sure there has to be some other explanation. What you're saying doesn't make sense."

"Whatever." Sonic turned to glare at Shadow again. "I know Shadow's up to something with Amy and that creep better stay away from her."

"It's funny when you're jealous." Knuckles laughed and Sonic's ears flattened in anger.

"If you're not going to say anything useful, then get the hell out of here." Sonic snapped, refusing to look at Knuckles as his cheeks turned as red as his friend's fur.

"It's not my fault that you've becoming a paranoid jealous freak." Knuckles snapped back. "You've been obsessed with Amy lately, no, scratch that, you've always been obsessed with her."

"What do you mean?"

"Always worrying about her safety and now you've taken it to a whole new level lately. Stalking her, threatening to kill any guy that gets near her. Why don't you just admit that you have feelings for her?"

Sonic tried his best to keep his temper under control as Knuckles brought this up again. "I'm just trying to be a good friend by showing concern. I do not have feelings for her beyond that of friendship!"

While Sonic and Knuckles continued to argue in the bush, Shadow looked over Amy's shoulder in the direction where he could feel eyes had been staring at him the whole time he had been there. He tried to contain his smirk as he could see faker and his moronic echidna friend arguing. It was clear that they had been spying on him and Amy, only now they were so busy arguing that they seemed to forgotten that the whole point of spying was to not get caught. Right now they were doing a pretty piss poor job of that as they were holding the branches apart so widely that Shadow could see everything they were doing.

"Amy, it looks like we're going to have to take this someplace else I'm afraid." Shadow smirked at her and Amy looked up at him in confusion.

"Why?"

"It seems we have attracted an audience." Shadow chuckled humourlessly. "No don't turn around." He added as Amy was about to turn around to see what he had been looking at. "Let's depart quickly."

They both got up as quickly and as nonchalantly as they could before Shadow ushered her out.

"Oh just get off my back would ya?!" Sonic yelled at the angry echidna before turning back around to spy on Amy and Shadow again. "Hey, where did they go?"

"Great." Knuckles muttered.

"This is all your fault." Sonic growled out as his eyes darted around to try and catch sight of the pink and black hedgehogs.

"My fault?!" Knuckles shouted. "You know what forget it, I'm not willing to be caught in the middle of a love triangle."

With that, Knuckles stormed off as Sonic glared at his retreating form before looking around for Amy and Shadow again.

"Dammit Amy, what have you gone and done and got yourself into this time?"

.

"Why'd ya drag me away?" Amy huffed as Shadow finally stopped them in the middle of the forest near Emerald Hill.

Shadow folded his arms. "It looks like faker caught us together."

Amy's eyes widened. "Shadow, I'm sorry, I didn't intend for that to happen." She began to babble, but Shadow held his hand out to stop her.

"It's not of any importance right now. I don't think he overheard anything as when I saw him, he was too busy arguing with the master emerald guardian." Shadow explained and Amy let out a small sigh of relief.

"But we need to be more careful from now on as we can't afford to have your cover blown by either sides." Shadow explained. "We can't afford to make any more mistakes."

Amy glared at him. "Speak for yourself. I quit."

"Excuse me?" Shadow asked in shock at how this had seemed to come out of nowhere.

"I can't do this anymore." Amy explained as she backed away slowly. "I don't care about proving myself anymore. I just want to warn Sonic; I don't want to see him get hurt. The very thought is killing me."

Shadow slowly shook his head as she was speaking. "Amy, you do realise this has become a lot more than just proving yourself now, right?"

Amy stared at him in confusion.

"You stupid naïve brat," Shadow said calmly, but somehow it sounded more threatening. "The world is in deep shit with whatever Eggman is planning and Sonic seems to be the key to Eggman taking over the world. And you want to just let that happen all because the job was a lot harder than you realised?"

"No!" Amy yelled as tears began flowing freely from her eyes. "Sonic has a right to know what's going on because it concerns him! Shadow, please! He's in huge trouble and we need to warn him! I don't know what Eggman's planning, but if we warn Sonic then he can be ready."

Shadow smirked. "You signed a contract. If you do this, you'll be arrested."

"Don't care." Amy cried. "Do whatever you want to me, but I have to warn Sonic. If he gets hurt or even killed, I won't be able to live with myself."

Shadow sighed in annoyance as he ran a hand through his quills. "That's exactly the reason why I chose you for this job." He explained as calmly as he could, trying to resist the urge to smack the stupid girl; she had mostly been pleasant and useful up until now. "You're so willing to do anything for that faker and Eggman accepted your revenge act so you're perfect for this. If you tell Sonic now, then this whole operation will be in trouble. Because you know faker, as soon as finds out Eggman is up to something big, he'll go rushing up there and he'll get captured and used for whatever Eggman wants him for. Do you want to be responsible for that?"

Amy thought for a moment before she sniffed and shook her head.

"Remember, your priority is to find out what Eggman is up to so we can find its weakness and sabotage it and save faker from whatever it is Eggman is planning." Shadow explained. "You need to continue to work undercover and report anything back to me. You've done a good job so far, but we need to find out exactly what project darkness is and put a stop to it."

Amy sighed. "Can't you just burst in there and arrest Eggman right now and get it over with? I'm sick of being a double agent."

"No, we need to find out exactly what we're dealing with. For all we know, it could be a weapon and our intrusion could cause Eggman to use it and we won't know how to stop it. That's why we need you to keep at your work."

Amy stared at Shadow for a while as she seemed to be contemplating something.

"Fine, but you need to promise me something." Amy demanded and Shadow looked at her with curiosity.

"Promise what?"

"That if Eggman finds out and I get killed, you have to promise me that you'll protect Sonic from harm no matter what."

"Amy – "

"Promise me!"

"You have my word." Shadow sighed. Amy had helped him remember his original promise to Maria and he figured he at least owed the little pink girl this, as much as he disliked faker. "But it won't come to that Amy. You have your distress signal and Eggman clearly needs you right now. We are going to stop him."

"I know, it's just…I have a feeling I'm going to mess up at some point." Amy whimpered. "The last thing I would want is for Sonic to suffer because of my mistakes; I just love him so much that I couldn't bear it."

Shadow rolled his eyes at the pathetic tangent this conversation had taken before his head snapped down to look at his communicator as it began beeping.

Amy watched as Shadow had a quiet conversation with the commander before the black hedgehog turned back to face her with her serious expression.

"The commander says we can't afford to wait any longer for Eggman to reveal his plan to you. He's being really careful lately and we need to nip this in the bud before it's too late so to speak." Shadow explained as Amy leaned in closer to listen carefully.

"What do I need to do?"

"You need to enter Eggman's base without being seen and you need to access as much information on project darkness as you can. I'll be on other end of your communicator the entire time. You can't steal it because Eggman will immediately suspect you, so what you need to do is read all the information out to me."

"But how will you – "

"I have a photographic memory."

Amy shot him a disbelieving look.

"Apart from the time I had amnesia." Shadow mumbled bitterly. "I'm a super military weapon remember?"

"Shadow I don't know if I can do this." Amy gulped nervously.

"If you want faker to stay safe then you'll have to." Shadow responded and that seemed to snap Amy out of her nervous state as she nodded with a sudden determination.

Shadow continued his earlier explanation. "You then need to get back out again without being seen."

"But Eggman has security cameras everywhere."

Shadow smirked. "Leave that to me. After hacking Tails' computer, Eggman's is going to be too easy. He'll probably suspect that Tails' did it in retaliation for thinking that Eggman hacked his computer or something. Watching faker when I did that was the most amusement I've had in years."

Amy rolled her eyes at the childish animosity between Shadow and Sonic. She could never understand why they couldn't just get along.

"So I sneak in, read the information to you and then sneak back out again is if nothing happened?" Amy checked to make sure she had everything.

Shadow nodded. "Can you do that?"

Amy smirked as this could finally defeat Eggman and save Sonic. "I can."

Shadow nodded before he began walking away.

"Oh, and Shadow?" Amy called back to him.

Shadow froze and turned around to face her.

"Remember your promise." She reminded him seriously and Shadow nodded once before he skated away, leaving Amy standing alone in the woods.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions.<strong>


	10. The Project

**NEWS: My poll is now closed and the results were in favour of 'yes'. So that means I'll start taking Sonamy one-shot requests. The rules of requests and other information are on my profile so feel free to check them out. I'll start taking requests now, so if you want to PM me with them, that's fine and I'll put your ideas on my list if I feel like I'll be able to write them. However, they won't be published until 1****st**** February 2015. If you have any questions then feel free to PM me anytime. **

**Thanks for all of the reviews! I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>10: The Project<strong>

Sonic sat rigidly on Tails' roof, curled into a tight ball, his fists clenched tightly by his knees which were tucked under his chin as he glared at the horizon. The image of Shadow and Amy sitting together, working together, was deeply imprinted into his mind and Sonic's stomach churned at thought. Knuckles may not believe him, but he knew Shadow was using Amy for something.

Shadow always looked out for number one. Sure, he had helped save the world a few times, but when it came to that hedgehog's private and business affairs, he was a user. He was selfish and ruthless and did _whatever_ was necessary to get what he wanted. And if that meant hurting Amy, then so be it.

Squeezing his eyes shut tightly, Sonic curled into himself tighter as he let out a low groan into his knees. He needed to help Amy, but he had no idea where she had gone. Yet again, the pink hedgehog seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet. Who knows what Shadow could be doing to her right now. He thought back to how Amy had looked these past few days, how pale and jittery she was. Forgetful and tense. Shadow had done that to her. Now Sonic wanted him to pay.

With his mind made up, Sonic shot up, standing determinedly as he debated about where the both of them were right now and was about to jump off the roof to look for them before Tails' voice stopped him.

"Sonic…I think you'll need to come down for this." Tails called up to him cautiously.

Sonic jumped down to stand in front of Tails as the young fox twiddled his fingers nervously and Sonic nodded, encouraging him to tell him what was bugging him.

"I think you were right to worry about Amy." Tails explained worriedly. "I found out what it was that she stole."

"What was it?" Sonic asked, his voice rising in pitch slightly as his worry became visible.

"She stole my analysis of your super form, information on your biology and information on the chaos emeralds." Tails listed and watched Sonic's expression nervously.

Sonic remained frozen as he processed what Tails was telling him. Why was she trying to steal all of that stuff? She couldn't be…

"All this information may help someone learn how to defeat you." Tails gulped. "I'm so sorry Sonic!" He suddenly yelled, close to tears. "I should've kept a better eye on that stuff!"

"This isn't your fault Tails. It's Shadow's." Sonic growled out and Tails looked up at him in confusion.

"Shadow?"

"It looks like he's forcing Amy to work for him or something and now I know why. He wants to defeat me so he can have her for himself, but it won't work." Sonic smirked.

Tails stared at Sonic as if he had completely lost it.

"What?"

"It all makes sense now. He's got some kind of hold on Amy right now and I need to save her!" Sonic began to sound slightly hysterical as he began twitching slightly with the need to run off and find her.

"Sonic, please just calm down, we don't know that for sure." Tails tried to reason.

"I'm telling you Tails. I saw them earlier! Shadow is ordering her around and getting her to do his dirty work!" Sonic yelled in frustration. "I have to go find her!"

All Tails did was blink and in that time, Sonic had vanished, leaving a puff of dust behind him.

.

Amy Rose walked calmly and carefully up the volcano that led to Eggman's base. The rivers and lakes of magma glowed a bright orange, slowly dribbling down the side of the volcano. The air was full of ash and gas and Amy nearly choked every time she had to make her way up here. But nothing could choke her more now than the fear of what she was about to do.

She held her breath and the main entrance of Eggman's base got closer and closer. She sighed with relief as she took in the sight of the inactive security cameras and mentally thanked Shadow as she typed in the code that Eggman had so kindly told her.

The doors beeped in recognition and opened to let her inside. Despite the raging inferno outside, the inside of the base was quite cool and Amy shivered at the sudden temperature change and looked around for any sign of Eggman or his stupid robotic minions. The coast was clear and Amy began to make her way down the long, metal corridors, making sure to peak around the corners before recklessly turning them. Sonic was counting on her right now and she couldn't afford to let him down by getting caught. If she got caught, then the game was over. Eggman would immediately know what she had been up to and the world would be his for the taking. Amy gulped as she realised that she was the only thing that seemed to be currently standing in the way between Eggman and world domination. It all depended on her.

Her body almost felt crushed by that much mental and emotional pressure, but she knew she had to press on. Shadow was right; this was now a matter of life and death. She couldn't afford to be the stupid, naïve girl she once was.

Feeling empowered and enlightened with that thought, Amy bit her lip as she pressed her back against the wall and slowly poked her head around the corner to check Eggman's office. The door had been left wide open and there was no sign of the mad scientist anywhere. She let out a small sigh of relief as she cautiously stepped into the office and gazed around the large open room. Her boots echoed on the metal ground in the silence of the area and Amy's eyes finally landed on the huge metal desk where she had last seen Eggman put away the file that could help take him down once and for all.

Amy jogged over and pushed Eggman's desk chair out of the way as she yanked the drawer open. Luck was on her side and the dark purple file was there, overflowing with paperwork and Amy reached down to pick it up and placed it back down on top of the desk.

"Ok, I'm in and I've got the file." Amy said into her now activated communicator.

"_Excellent_." Shadow praised from the other end of the communicator. "_Now see what's inside_."

Amy took a deep breath as she opened the file that she had been longing to see. At last all of Eggman's secret plans were going to be revealed. The file didn't seem to have any clear organisation. The papers all spilled out as they were now released from their purple prison.

"There's a lot of paperwork." Amy mumbled as she picked some of it up. "I see some of the stuff that I had to steal for him. The analysis on Super Sonic; he's highlighted some of the sentences and notes. 'In this form, Sonic becomes almost invincible as he channels the positive power of the chaos energy.'" Amy quoted.

"_Hmmm."_

"'Even though Chaos had yielded the power of the chaos emeralds to reach the form of Perfect Chaos, Sonic was still able to utilise the power as he only used their positive force.' It looks like he might be creating some sort of weapon with the chaos emeralds." Amy added her thoughts as she picked up another piece of paper full of notes that she had stolen.

"_Keep going." _Shadow urged.

"Here's Tails analysis on the chaos emeralds: 'The chaos emeralds are very much like a yin and yang as they contain both positive and negative powers. Even though chaos emeralds behave as if they were alive, they do not choose sides. They can help someone by using dark energy or light energy, depending on the mental state of the user.'"

"_I already know most of this." _Shadow started to sound slightly impatient. _"Try and find some of Eggman's notes." _

Amy flicked through the different papers and finally found one with Eggman's own notes on it. "There's lots of photos of Sonic in battle, newspaper cut outs on his victories in battle and notes on his fighting techniques. Whoa!"

"_What is it?" _Shadow demanded.

"According to Eggman's research on Sonic in battle, Sonic appears to be holding back a lot when he fights. He's concluded that Sonic is a lot more powerful than he lets on."

"_Interesting." _

Amy's eyes continued to scan the sheets of paper. "Eggman says that Sonic seems to begin to unleash his full potential whenever one of his friends is placed in danger. Evoking his anger receives even more of an oppositional response than usual. 'His friends appear to be the key', he's underlined."

"_The key? The key to what?" _

"Give me a chance!" Amy snapped as she read the notes as quickly and as efficiently as she could, hoping that she hadn't missed anything critical. The large diagram of a weapon caught her eye and Amy frowned at it in confusion. All seven chaos emeralds had arrows pointing to the weapon and there was a small drawing added in a different coloured pen, which must have been done more recently, of a line coming out the end of the weapon. Maybe a laser? Whatever it was, it appeared to be hitting the small drawing of Sonic in the chest. That couldn't just be any normal doodle.

"Hey Shadow?" Amy said nervously.

"_What?"_

"It looks like you were right about the whole weapon thing. Eggman has drawn something involving the chaos emeralds being shot directly at Sonic." Amy explained as she traced her finger over the drawing of Sonic.

"_I knew it." _Shadow mumbled before speaking up more. _"So he intends to kill Sonic with this chaos emerald weapon?"_

Amy frowned. "I'm not sure. He told me that he didn't intend to kill Sonic."

"_Then what could he possibly want with him alive?"_

"I don't know." Amy replied, starting to feel incredibly anxious.

"_Well find out!" _

As Amy searched through the papers again, she was completely unaware of the audience that she had attracted. Peaking around the corner behind the door was Doctor Eggman as he watched the small pink hedgehog with a light smirk on his lips. Orbot and Cubot stared up at him, their blue lit up eyes squinted in confusion.

"Boss, it seems that the pink one has double-crossed you. Why are you so happy?" Orbot asked.

"Yeah, shouldn't we be capturing her or something?" Cubot added.

Eggman's smirked widened. "All in good time boys, all in good time. I had a feeling she was double-crossing me from the beginning. I simply took her on because without her, I wouldn't have gathered the amazing information that I have. Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war. Amy and Shadow may think they hold the upper hand right now, but they are very much mistaken."

Orbot and Cubot exchanged a glance.

"Wow, nothing gets passed you, does it boss?" Cubot cheered.

"You truly are a genius!" Orbot praised.

"Ssssh!" Eggman hissed. "However, I can't have her finding out too much about project darkness right now otherwise my whole plan will be ruined. I need to get her out of there."

Eggman stared across the corridor where a big red button was placed high up on the wall. He smiled evilly as he walked over and slammed his fist down the button. Immediately the lights turned red and a loud alarm began blaring.

"Sweet! Now are we going to capture her?" Cubot yelled excitedly over the deafening noise of the alarm.

"No!" Eggman snapped. "No one is to lay a finger on that girl. There's something very important I need to do first."

Amy gasped and looked up in shock and horror as the room around her abruptly turned a dark shade of red and the screeching of an alarm caused her to drop the papers back on the desk in fear.

"_What is it?" _Shadow demanded urgently.

"Ummm, can I call you back?" Amy shut down her communicator and quickly shoved the file back into the drawer and slammed it shut.

She took off out of the room, panting as she ran for her life down the empty corridors. She thanked her lucky stars that no robots seemed to be chasing her – yet. Her chest felt tight and her legs burned as she ran faster than she ever had before. How had that alarm even gone off in the first place? Shadow had shut down the security cameras and she didn't see anyone outside the room as she left. What had happened? Had Eggman seen her? Was it now all over?

Amy wanted to kick herself for being so careless. The guilt began to slowly eat away at her as she continued to run. She didn't even care as she summoned her hammer to smash her way through the steel entrance, back onto the slope of the volcano. This entire important operation could now be over because of her.

Her eyes watered at the thought which was made worse by the thick clouds of ash and gas in the air, blurry her vision. Amy coughed and spluttered as she breathed in the toxic air with her laboured breathing from running so fast before she felt her foot get jammed in a rock sticking out of the ground in her haste. Amy yelped as she tripped and tumbled the rest of the way down the volcano. The sharp, jiggered rocks piercing through her pink fur and peach flesh, staining it red in her blood. She finally came to a stop as she slammed into a larger boulder at the bottom of the volcano and Amy wheezed as it knocked the breath out of her. She managed to push herself into a kneeling position as she continued to cough as clean air gradually began to fill her lungs again. She clutched her aching sides as she peered back up at the base through the thick clouds of gas that now surrounded it as the volcano became more active.

Still no sign of a pursuit. She needed to get out of there before they found her and then call Shadow to tell him what happened. With that thought, she managed to finally get back on her feet, albeit shakily after her ordeal. Coughing one last time, Amy took off into the surrounding wilderness as Eggman watched her through binoculars out his office window.

"That's right Amy. Run while you still can."

.

"Whoa! What happened to you, pinkie?" Rouge's eyes widened as Amy stumbled across the small meadow to meet the white bat and black hedgehog who were both waiting for her.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just fell down the outside of a volcano." She chuckled nervously as her arms and legs began to sting furiously. Her chest still ached and she imagined that she didn't look very pretty right now.

"I'll say. Take a good look." Rouge said as she pulled a small mirror from her pocket and held it in front of Amy's face. Amy gasped at her reflection. It looked like she had been rolling around in coal as her face was stained with dust. She was covered in various different cuts and even a few bruises were beginning to develop.

"Never mind that." Shadow cleared his throat impatiently. "We have more important issues to worry about than what one looks like."

"Right." Amy agreed as Rouge placed her mirror away and Amy tried to rub some of the dust and blood away self-consciously.

"What happened?" Shadow asked.

"I don't know." Amy replied in a rush. "The alarm just suddenly started going off so I made a run for it. It was really weird because I wasn't chased or attacked."

"That doesn't sound too good." Rouge mumbled. "Of course I'm happy you got out pinkie, don't get me wrong, but it was strange that you weren't attacked. What do you think Shads?"

Shadow said nothing as he stood there deep in thought. "I'm not liking this." He muttered at last. "There's no doubt that Eggman is up to something sinister so I suggest you remain on your guard. It doesn't look like he knew it was you that was there, otherwise you would have been killed on the spot. I suggest you keep up your original façade of wanting to help Eggman in order to get revenge on Sonic. Continue working for him and report anything back to me." He ordered.

"What are you going to do now?" Amy asked.

"Since we have received word that Eggman has collected six of the chaos emeralds so far, Rouge and I are going to get to the other one before he can. He seems to need all seven for this weapon of his so if we can capture the last emerald before he does, we may buy ourselves some time and be able to destroy this _project darkness _before he's even had chance to use it." Shadow explained.

Amy nodded.

"Until we return, you must remain on your guard. Don't do anything stupid in our absence and this still remains a secret. Sonic can't know anything, remember."

Amy sighed. "Yes."

Shadow nodded at her before skating off.

"Take care pinkie." Rouge winked as she flew off after him to find the final chaos emerald.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	11. A Cruel Deception

**Hey everyone and thank you for the wonderful reviews. I own nothing!**

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><p><strong>11: A Cruel Deception <strong>

Amy's legs felt like lead as she dragged her body back home. She couldn't wait to get back inside and have a much needed and deserved bath after everything she had been through today. Her cuts continued to sting sharply and Amy looked down at her legs. Now that some of the blood had dried up she could see that some of the rocks had pierced quite deeply into her arms and legs. She really needed to get them cleaned.

"Ahhhhh!" Amy cried out as her pain suddenly intensified as something slammed into the side of her, knocking her to the ground and leaving her briefly dazed as her head slammed against the soil.

Amy heard another familiar voice yelp as they too fell to the floor with a loud _thump. _She groaned as her injuries seemed to re-ignite like fire and her cuts and bruises began to burn more than ever before.

"Amy?" She heard Sonic gasp and her vision began to straighten out again. "Amy! I'm so sorry!"

Sonic grabbed hold of her arms and helped her to her feet before he gasped as he registered her appearance. "What happened to you?"

Amy chuckled nervously, refusing to meet his eyes as she fiddled with the hem of her dress. "One of Eggman's robots came out of nowhere." She lied. "Don't worry, I destroyed it though."

She finally looked up to meet his gaze only to jump back slightly to see his eyes narrowing at her in suspicion. Oh yeah, she'd almost forgot that Shadow had told her he'd spotted them together. She really hoped that he wouldn't start asking questions. Exhaustion wasn't a good thing to be experiencing when you needed to keep lots of secrets bottled up. She needed to get home – fast.

"Anyway, sorry for walking into you." Amy mumbled. "But I really need to get back and sort myself out."

Sonic seemed to snap of his angry state to stare at her with concern swimming in his green eyes before he sighed. "I'll take you."

"That's not necessa – whoa!"

Before Amy could even finish protesting, Sonic had scooped her up into his arms and was running with her back to her house. He held onto her gently as she curled into his chest in fear, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as the world blurred passed them. They came to an abrupt stop and Sonic gently set her down on her feet and Amy opened her eyes to see them standing outside her house.

"I hate it when you do that." Amy complained. "Do you think you could give me a small warning next time?"

Sonic grinned cheekily at her. "Sure thing Amy, now let's get you inside."

He grabbed hold of her upper arm and pulled her towards the front door and Amy felt like her heart had jumped out of her chest and into her throat. It was beating erratically as Sonic's touch sent electric pulses all over her body and she felt like her legs were going to collapse under her.

Amy unlocked her door and Sonic continued to lead her inside and into the kitchen where he motioned for her to sit down on one of the breakfast bar stools before he grabbed the first aid kit hanging by her back door. He pulled out a cloth and ran it under some hot water before walking back over to Amy to dab it over a large graze on her arm, cleaning away the blood.

"Must've been one hell of a fight." Sonic muttered, although Amy felt like she could trace some elements of sarcasm.

"Yeah, well, it came out of nowhere." Amy cringed as she lied to him. "I can't believe I let it surprise me like that."

"Mmmm."

Amy winced in pain as Sonic pressed the cloth against another deep cut on her arm, mumbling a brief apology as he did so.

"Sorry for running into you by the way. I bet I've made half of these worse." Sonic sighed as he rinsed the blood covered cloth under the tap and Amy watched as the thick red liquid stained his white gloves, but Sonic didn't seem to notice or care. Amy looked down at her own attire and sighed as she saw her dirt and blood stained dress, gloves and boots. It was going to take forever to wash out.

"It's ok." Amy mumbled.

"I saw you with Shadow earlier." Sonic mentioned passively.

"Oh?"

Sonic turned around to stare at her with a slight frown on his face.

"Oh? What do you mean by oh?"

Amy shifted around uncomfortably. "You know, we just got talking and all that."

"Mmm, 'cause it looked really cosy from where I was standing." Sonic growled out through clenched teeth.

Amy's eyes widened. This wasn't the kind of reaction she had expected. She thought that he'd be angry that she was hanging out with such a dangerous person, maybe even be a little bit suspicious of her actual actions. But this seemed to come out of nowhere. What was up with him?

"What do you mean?" Amy asked, feeling confused.

Sonic shrugged, twitching slightly. "Oh I don't know. You tell me."

"I tell you?"

He nodded. "After all, you seem to be such good friends. So how come you're sneaking off to hang out with Shadow? Are we not good enough for you now?"

Amy gawped at him in a state of complete and utter shock before she pushed herself off the stool to stand up and face him better.

"What on earth has gotten into you?" She demanded, folding her arms and instantly regretted it as she winced at the pain as her injuries flexed with her arms.

"Don't turn this around on me!" Sonic snapped, making her jump slightly. "You're the one who has been acting weird lately and I want to know what's going on. When did you start seeing Shadow and why?"

"Sonic, we just met up to have a friendly chat, that's all." It wasn't exactly a lie; she was just hiding the truth from him.

"Then why keep it a secret?" He demanded, his green eyes wild with some strange emotion. Amy had never seen that look in his eyes before. He looked genuinely terrified of something and the very thought frightened her. What was he so scared of? She couldn't figure out why he was behaving like this and quizzing her on Shadow so much. Out of everything, she would've thought a small meet up with Shadow would be the least of his worries.

"I don't know, I wasn't under the impression that I was keeping it a secret. Just because I didn't happen to say anything, doesn't make it some massive secret." Amy frowned. "Besides I don't see how it is any of your business. Why do you care that I hang out with Shadow so much?"

"Because he's a psychopath!"

"Uh huh. And are you sure that's the only reason? You never have any problems when you have to work with him."

Sonic growled. "That's different Amy."

"How?"

"Because...because..." Sonic struggled to come up with anything. "Because we're both saving the world. I don't want you going anywhere near that creep."

Amy snorted. "And who are you to decide what I can and can't do? Overprotective much!"

"I'm not being overprotective!" Sonic shrieked. "I just know what Shadow's like. I've been on the other end of his wrath enough times to know that he could kill you with a small flick of his hand. He's dangerously unstable Amy!"

While Amy and Sonic continued to argue, Orbot opened the front door as quietly as he could and gently slipped a piece of paper onto the small table next to the door. He then gently closed the door behind him whilst the two hedgehogs were none the wiser.

"Come on Sonic! Why are you giving me such a hard time? What is it about Shadow that's got you so riled up?"

Sonic was about to shout back before he seemed to stop himself and stuttered as he struggled to find the right words. Amy sighed, giving up arguing with him before her phone began ringing. She tried to ignore the feeling of Sonic's eyes burning into the back of her as she made her way over to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Are you alone?" Eggman demanded and Amy's heart began accelerating with fear. Had she been caught?

"No." She responded as nonchalantly as she could manage.

"Well move into another room or something."

Amy sighed and turned to face Sonic who was glaring at her.

"Could you excuse me for a minute?" She excused herself and was about to leave the room when Sonic ran over and grabbed hold of her shoulder.

"No!" Sonic yelled in frustration. "Who are you talking to?"

"It's none of your business!" Amy shouted back as she roughly pushed his hand off her shoulder and slammed the kitchen door in his face.

Sonic stared, frozen in shock, at the sudden large barrier of wood that now separated them. He growled lowly to himself and pressed his ear against the wood in hopes of hearing something, but Amy was talking too quietly to make anything out. He didn't dare go in there. He didn't fancy coming face to face with her hammer right now, especially now that she was in a bad mood. Smooth moves. Get the girl angry. Now he'd never get any information out of her.

Obviously she was talking to Shadow right now. Probably planning another secret date. Sonic began to grind his teeth at the thought. And what about those injuries? Sonic instantly knew that Amy was lying about how she had received them. So how had she got them? What if…what if they were inflicted by Shadow?

Sonic staggered backwards slightly at the mere thought. What was that fake hedgehog doing to her? He didn't trust him at all, especially with Amy. He was psycho and certainly capable of doing such a thing. Oh Amy, why won't you just tell the truth?

He couldn't take it anymore. Swinging his leg around, Sonic kicked the door down and instead of finding Amy on the phone, the room was completely empty. His eyes widened as they scanned the room. Where did she go? He noticed the front door was left open and he was amazed that she'd managed to slip out without him hearing. Wow, that girl was good.

Storming towards the door, Sonic then stopped as he noticed a small piece of paper with a very familiar symbol on the small, round table next to her front door. He reached down to pick it up and stared at it in horror. Eggman's symbol was grinning up at him and Sonic began to feel sick as he read what the note said.

_Amy,_

_We need to discuss further business together. Meet me in the Emerald Hill fields this evening and we'll talk more there. Then you'll finally be able to get your revenge on Sonic._

_- Eggman_

Sonic didn't know how long he had been standing there staring at the letter. Minutes. Hours. Time stood still as he read the same line over and over again in his mind.

_Then you'll finally be able to have your revenge on Sonic._

This couldn't…just couldn't be true. Amy…wanting to team up with Eggman to fight against him.

NO!

He refused to believe it.

Scrunching the letter up in his powerful grip, Sonic glared in the direction of Emerald Hill. This had to be Shadow's doing. Yeah. That was it. He was doing this so he and Amy would fight. So that they'd never speak to each other again. Then he could get his evil alien hybrid hands all over Amy. Well, if Shadow wanted to play some stupid game, then Sonic would join in. Why the hell not? He'd go to Emerald Hill and see what was really there. Nothing was going to be there because Shadow was spreading poisonous lies. Lies. Lies that would make Sonic hate Amy. Well that would never happen. Because Amy would never willingly do such a thing.

He threw the paper away behind him as he sped off towards Emerald Hill. To prove once and for all that Amy would never ever dream of hurt him.

Sonic arrived at his destination and looked around for any signs of the large doctor and a small pink hedgehog. No sign of any of them.

He smirked with satisfaction before he heard Amy's voice coming from behind a large group of bushes and his smile instantly dropped into an expression of confusion. He crept towards the bush and peaked through to see Amy stood facing Eggman. It couldn't be…

"So you want me to lure Sonic to your base so you can carry out the project?" Amy questioned and Eggman smirked and nodded.

"That's the plan."

"But what is the project and what's it going to do to him?" Amy asked impatiently.

Eggman laughed evilly. "Let's just say it will mean that you'll finally get your revenge on Sonic once and for all."

Sonic watched in mute horror as Amy's face twisted into an evil grin. No. No, it couldn't be true. Amy would never willingly team up with Eggman and work against him. The look in Amy's eyes was cold and hard. Unfeeling as she watched Eggman walk back over to his mech.

"I will not fail you." Amy smiled evilly and Eggman nodded.

As his heart felt like it was shattering into a million pieces, he knew he couldn't bear to be here a minute longer. The sight of Amy betraying him was too much to handle. His mind was a mess. He needed to get out. He quickly turned around and took off without being seen.

Or so he thought.

Eggman couldn't help but laugh at the look on Sonic's face at seeing him and Amy scheming together. This was all working out much better than he imagined.

.

"Tails! TAILS!"

Sonic's panicked voice made Tails jump as he looked up from his desk in alarm. Sonic dashed into his workshop and slammed his fists down on the desk, creating small dents and making Tails almost lose his balance on his chair.

"What?" Tails asked worriedly. "What is it?"

"It's Amy." Sonic managed to choke out as he ran a hand through his quills. He was out of breath and his green eyes were wild as he searched Tails' eyes, begging him to believe what he was saying. "She's…she's joined Eggman."

"W-what?"

Sonic fought back tears as the scene of Eggman and Amy together kept replaying over and over again in his mind.

"I saw her…she must have left the letter behind and I saw it. Eggman was telling her to meet him at Emerald Hill so I went there and there they were. Plotting my downfall." Sonic shrieked.

Tails' eyes widened.

"This is all my fault." Sonic whimpered.

"Your fault? Why?"

"If I hadn't been so horrible to her that day. Who am I kidding? I've been horrible to her ever since we met. I've done this to her and now she wants revenge on me."

Tails glared up at his older brother. "Sonic, you can't think like that. It doesn't matter what you've done, Amy has made this choice. She shouldn't have joined Eggman."

"I need to get to her." Sonic suddenly snapped out of his emotional state and glared determinedly.

"Can we just think about this for a minute?" Tails tried to reason. "We can't just jump in there. There might be more to this situation."

"NO!" Sonic yelled angrily at Tails and the young fox flinched back slightly. Sonic had never shouted at him like that before. He'd never seen Sonic so hysterical. It was scary.

"I need to get to her NOW. I need to make her see sense!"

Sonic never gave Tails a chance to respond as he sped off to look for the delusional pink hedgehog.

"Sonic, wait!" Tails cried out, but he was already gone.

This can't be good, Tails thought as he ran out of his workshop and began flying towards Angel Island. Sonic couldn't just run in there and do it alone. He could get himself killed as Eggman and Amy seemed to definitely have something planned.

They would need all the help they could get.

.

"What's so funny?" Amy demanded, confused as Eggman continued to laugh manically.

"Because the stupid blue hedgehog actually fell for it."

Amy narrowed her eyes. "Fell for what?"

Eggman finally managed to stop laughing and cleared his throat, clasping his hands behind his back and smirking proudly down at Amy.

"I had Orbot leave a little letter for Sonic to find back at your house telling him of our whereabouts right now." He explained whilst still trying to contain his laughter.

"W-why did you do that? I thought you didn't want him to know of our plans?" Amy asked taking a slight step back, not liking the way Eggman was looking at her.

Eggman made his way back over to his mech. He rummaged for something before hiding whatever he had found behind his back and making his way over to Amy.

"How else was I going to lure him in?" Eggman asked rhetorically. "It really has been a pleasure working with you, but unfortunately for you, I've know what you've been up to pretty much since the beginning."

Amy could feel herself going pale as her heart skipped a beat in her chest at Eggman's words.

"It's been a lot of fun and I thank you for providing me with the methods of defeating Sonic. Now I can finally succeed where I have previously failed many times. I will conquer the universe with this new power I am about to gain. I will step over you and your friends, victorious and the ruler of all." Eggman took another step towards her as Amy shook her head in denial.

"No! You can't!" Amy begged, her eyes filling up with tears. "Leave Sonic and the others alone!"

"You only have yourself to blame. It was you who gave me everything I needed." Eggman thanked her. "Game over Amy."

Eggman swung his hidden hand around, knocking a hard metal object into Amy's head, knocking her to the ground.

Amy screamed in pain as the object collided with her head and she could feel something warm and wet trickling down her quills and onto her shoulders. She tried to push herself up, but the pain become unbearable, clouding her vision and making her dizzy.

She felt the object hit the back of her head again and the darkness of unconsciousness surrounded her.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	12. According to Plan

**Thanks for all of the reviews guys!**

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>12: According to Plan<strong>

Pain. That was all Amy could feel. Every inch of her body was throbbing and aching as her eyes gently fluttered open. All she could see was darkness and she was beginning to wonder if she was dead. She could feel a solid metal ground beneath and noises began drifting closer to her…footsteps?

A heavy metal door that sounded like it hadn't been used in a while opened and a light flickered on, illuminating the small room around Amy. It was a prison cell.

She remained lying still on the ground, too weak to move and she let out a choked gasp when she noticed Eggman smirking at her from the doorway. His blue glasses were sparkling in the light as he leaned cockily against the metal framing.

"Nice to see you're finally awake. It's been no fun not having anyone to taunt." He chuckled.

Amy let out a shaky breath as she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position. Her vision went slightly fuzzy before clearing, but the throbbing in the back of her head remained just as painful. In fact the movement may have made it worse. She reached her gloved hand around and gently pressed it against the spot that was hurting so much and pulled her hand back and gasped when she saw her hand was covered in blood. It dripped between her fingers and onto the silver floor, creating small puddles. Amy looked up at Eggman in alarm.

"That's what traitors get for double-crossing me." He sighed in mock sympathy. "I knew that you would never actually betray Sonic."

This re-awakened Amy's memories of the events prior to being locked up here. She glared at Eggman, although every small twitch of the muscles in her face made her head injury throb even more. She could feel the blood trickling down onto her shoulders and she knew that she needed to get help soon.

"I-If you k-knew all along…" Amy panted as she struggled to speak. "T-then why did y-you let me work for you?" Speaking made her feel sick and the dizziness began to return again. Her ears began ringing and she knew she was in serious trouble.

Eggman laughed, although to Amy, it sounded like he was underwater.

"Because I needed the information. You gave it to me feeling so confident that you and Shadow could stop my plans." He explained happily. "In fact, in doing what you have done, you have played right into my hands. You made this so much easier than it originally was. I couldn't believe my luck when you came to me. The world is now mine for the taking."

"N-no! I won't let you." Amy's voice broke as she attempted to yell. She tried to stand up, but just ended up falling forwards back onto the floor as she completely lost her sense of balance. This made Eggman laugh at her harder.

"Bah! You can barely even save yourself." He laughed, walking over to her and looking down at her as if she was nothing but dirt. "Ahhhhh, Sonic save me!" He squealed in a high pitched voice.

Amy whimpered.

"Sonic, I've been kidnapped again, help me! Sonic, I've caused trouble again, please clean up my mess. Sonic, sonic, sonic!" Eggman continued to mock as tears began forming in Amy's eyes, making her vision even more blurry than it already was.

"You're pathetic!" Eggman yelled. "Why can't you see that? Sonic will never want you. Why would he want such a weak girl like you? A girl whose more trouble than she's worth."

"Stop it." Amy pleaded as his words stung worse than the blows to her head. The worst part was that she knew what he was saying was true. She began sobbing at the thought.

"Awww, do you see what I mean?" Eggman sneered. "Too bad you'll never get to see what project darkness really is. I know how much you were _dying _to see what it was. Now you'll never know."

Amy tried to push herself up off the ground again, but just toppled over again. Her limbs refused to work correctly and the pain in the back of her skull got worse. She looked down and now realised that she had collapsed in a puddle of her own blood. She was slowly bleeding to death.

"Today will be the day I finally defeat you all." Eggman sighed dreamily. "I think I'm going to cry."

"S-Sonic will n-never let you get away with it." Amy gasped out as she struggled to keep her thoughts coherent. Shapes and colours were dancing across her vision and she still felt like she was underwater. Blood continued to ooze out of her head and onto the floor, where it soaked into Amy's fur and clothes. She was going to die. To be honest, she didn't care. She'd given up. She knew she deserved everything she got for being so stupid.

Eggman snorted. "I already have gotten away with it, dear. Now, I need to prepare for my victory. It's a shame you won't be able to see my plan in action and the downfall of your friends. I estimate that you have, oh I don't know, about a few minutes left to live? Maybe an hour if you're lucky?"

He burst into another fit of laughter and continued laughing as he left the room, closing the door behind him and locking it.

Amy groaned as the pain was unbearable. She tried to drag her body towards the door with her last amount of energy, but only managed to shuffle forward a few centimetres before she collapsed again. She needed to alert Shadow that something had gone wrong. In her last moments she needed to send out a warning that should hopefully save them. Shadow had promised her that if something was to happen to her, then he would protect Sonic from harm. She just hoped that he fulfilled his promise.

Pulling her wrist up in front of her face, Amy inspected the golden ring to see where Shadow had placed her distress signal. If there was any time to use it, it was definitely now. She felt the inside of it and smiled with relief when she felt a small switch under her finger. She flicked it with her last ounce of strength before she finally gave in and collapsed into the pool of her own blood.

.

"Come to mama." Rouge smiled greedily as she pressed her hands and face against the glass prison containing her precious emerald.

"Stand back." Shadow ordered and Rouge did as she was told. "Chaos spear!" Shadow yelled, shooting the yellow energy from his hands, creating a perfect slice at the top of the glass container. An alarm immediately began blaring.

Guards came running in and had them surrounded in an instant. Steel shutters sealed the doors behind them and the human guards pointed their guns at the black hedgehog and white bat. They didn't even seem fazed as the guards glared at them.

"That is private property you are currently stealing." One of the guards yelled. "I order you to lave it alone and turn yourselves in without resistance."

"Private property?" Rouge gasped, looking offended. "I am merely claiming what is rightfully mine. All of the world's precious gems are mine so how can it be stealing?"

Shadow smirked as he grabbed hold of the red chaos emerald and held it tightly in his hands in front of him. The guards gasped and aimed their guns at him.

"I order you to freeze!" The same guard yelled.

Shadow grabbed hold of Rouge's wrist and concentrated hard. "Chaos control!" He yelled as time and space warped around them. The guards gasped and shielded their eyes as Shadow and Rouge disappeared in a bright burst of red light.

Rouge gasped and staggered dizzily as she felt her feet land on solid ground again and Shadow released her wrist and stared at the emerald in his hand.

"Those creeps, think they could keep my emerald." Rouge spat. "Who do they think they are?"

Shadow ignored her and was soon distracting by a beeping noise coming from his wrist. Only it wasn't the commander calling him, it was a distress signal. His red eyes widened as he pressed buttons on his communicator, displaying the location of Amy Rose.

"What is it?" Rouge asked, slightly concerned as she took in the look on Shadow's face.

"It's Amy."

"Amy? Is she ok?"

"I don't think so." Shadow mumbled. "Her distress signal has been activated and she's currently in Eggman's base. Her cover has been blown."

Rouge's eyes widened. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! Now that we have the final emerald. We can take on Eggman. I'll call for reinforcements to meet us there."

.

All Sonic could see was red as he stood on top of a hill overlooking the volcano where he had finally discovered Eggman's base. It had taken him hours, but he found it. He knew it would've had to have been in a place where there was a lot of energy. This active volcano was perfect. Sonic could see the glow of the lava reflecting off the metal walls even through the smoke and ash.

"Alright Amy." Sonic glared straight ahead. "No more games."

He pushed his legs forward, creating a sonic boom as he ran as fast as he could towards the base, arriving in seconds. He paused a few yards away from the door as he saw a black blur in the distance. Shadow and Rouge were lurking near the door. Why was he not surprised? Those two had to be involved somehow.

Before Sonic could even register his actions, he was over at Shadow's location in a flash and had his hand clenched around his prey's neck.

Shadow's eyes widened in the sudden shock of the unexpected attack before he kicked Sonic off him, sending him crashing into a rock. Sonic managed to stable himself, preventing himself from falling into the lake of lava and charged towards Shadow again, punching him square in the face.

Shadow grunted, covering his nose in pain before his red eyes seemed to set on fire as they burned into Sonic's cold green ones.

"Faker." He acknowledged with a sneer before he removed his hand and spat out blood. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Sonic just growled menacingly at him, his quills standing on end in irritation as he stood poised, ready to fight. "I don't have time for formalities."

Sonic charged forwards, swinging his right leg around to land a kick in Shadow's stomach but the black hedgehog stopped him. He grabbed hold of Sonic's leg in a tight grip and flipped his blue doppelganger over his head, slamming Sonic against the rocky ground. Sonic snatched his leg out of Shadow's grip and kicked him in the chest with his other leg. Shadow staggered backwards and his hands charged up with chaos energy before Rouge's impatient voice interrupted them.

"Cool it guys!" She yelled as she hovered over them, her wings flapping gently as her white fur had an orange hue in the hot glow of the lava. "We have a mission, remember Shadow?"

"Yeah, a mission to turn Amy to the dark side." Sonic muttered sarcastically as he coughed out ash and dirt and got up off the ground.

"What?" Rouge shot him a confused look.

"What are you doing here anyway faker?" Shadow questioned him.

"I'm here to get Amy, with your permission." Sonic snarled at him giving Shadow a look of pure loathing. "After all, you seem to enjoy making innocent girls do your dirty work and turning them evil."

Shadow remained expressionless until Sonic turned and spin dashed into the main entrance, disappearing in a blue blur.

"Faker, wait!" Shadow pleaded in alarm.

"Ah let him go get the girl." Rouge shrugged indifferently.

"No, because Eggman needs him. He's delivered himself right into Eggman's hands!" Shadow yelled as he got ready to take off after him.

"Shouldn't we wait until the GUN reinforcements arrive?" Rouge asked.

Shadow just glared at her. "You can, but I made a promise to Amy that I intend to keep."

And with that, Shadow took off after Sonic.

.

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled as he burst through the metal doors and into the main hall of his lair. Eggman was stood on an elevated platform at some sort of complex looking control panel with a white sheet covering a large object underneath him. Sonic glared murderously up at him.

"Don't you ever knock?" Eggman snapped as Sonic's sudden entrance made him jump.

"That's the whole point of a surprise attack. Now where's Amy?" Sonic demanded.

"My my, so demanding."

"I'm warning you Egghead! Have you brainwashed her?"

Eggman pretended to be offended. "How could you accuse me of such a thing? But jokes aside, Amy came to me on her own merit. I have done nothing."

Eggman's words felt like they had pierced Sonic's heart. So Amy really had betrayed him. He imagined life now. Fighting against Amy instead of alongside her. Attacking her. Defeating her. The mental images made Sonic feel sick. No matter what, he didn't feel like he could bring himself to hurt her.

"Sonic!" He heard a familiar voice yell.

He turned around to see Tails, Knuckles and Blaze all run into the room, closely followed by Shadow as he stared at his communicator before he glared up at Eggman. Wait…wasn't Shadow on Eggman's side?

"It's over Eggman. Soldiers are on their way here right to arrest you and there's no escape for we will stop you. Hand over Amy." Shadow ordered.

"Perfect; Sonic's little squad." Eggman grinned from ear to ear. "Amy will not be joining us tonight as she is trying out one of my new prison cells. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if you'll find nothing but a body."

Everyone cried out in fear at Eggman's words and Sonic had a hard time standing up straight. It had to be a bluff. If Amy was on Eggman's side, why would he try and kill her? None of this was making sense anymore.

Four huge robots suddenly appeared and marched in, grabbing hold of Sonic's friends. Tails and Knuckles squirmed around, but to no avail. Blaze tried burning her way out, but the robots seemed to be immune to her powers. Even Shadow couldn't use his chaos powers against them.

"Do you like my new pets?" Eggman chuckled as he watched them all squirm whilst Sonic stared up at them in horror. "Built with chaos energy storage tanks inside them and are pretty much invincible so I'd stop trying to escape if I were you. You'll only embarrass yourselves. Oh and by the way, thank you for being such an amazing delivery boy Shadow."

The large robot holding Shadow snatched the chaos emerald off him as he struggled and Shadow froze as it was handed to Eggman.

"If you try anything, I'll personally rip you apart!" Shadow snarled.

"I thought you were on Eggman's side?" Sonic called up to Shadow.

"No you blue idiot!"

"You'll never get away with this Eggman!" Tails yelled before choking in pain as the robot tightened its grip on the young fox.

"Let him go!" Sonic yelled in anger, not being able to stand seeing his little brother in pain.

He was about to dash to try and attack the robot before two other robots appeared and held Sonic high up in the air by his arms. He used all of his strength to try and break free, but to no avail.

"Clearly, these robots have the power to kill Sonic." Shadow spoke to Eggman. "Why not just defeat him with them?"

Eggman chuckled once before he pulled the white sheet off the large item under his control panel. The weapon towered above them and looked like a futuristic ray gun. The lights on it were a dim shade of blue until Eggman reached over and placed the red chaos emerald into a slot on top of it. He fiddled with the controls and the weapon beeped and buzzed as it came to life, aiming directly at Sonic. Sonic didn't seem too bothered about it as he watched his friends struggle, feeling weak and pathetic as he couldn't do a thing about it.

"Because I don't want to kill him." Eggman answered Shadow's question. "With this weapon and these robots, I will finally be able to rule the world, no, the universe!" He laughed evilly.

"That's impossible" Blaze yelled.

"Execute them." Eggman ordered, sounding bored. The robots began constricting their metal hands around Knuckles, Shadow, Tails and Blaze. "You can all join Amy in the next life."

"NO!" Sonic shrieked and began thrashing around furiously.

"Ruling the universe won't be impossible…if I have Sonic's help." Eggman smirked as he held his hand over the button, ready to press it. "Because he's going to join me."

Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Eggman slammed his hand down in the button. The weapon charged up with energy, the blue lights glowing brighter. A bright laser shot out of it. Screams echoed around the room as it hit Sonic directly in the chest.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions and don't forget to feel free to leave Sonamy one-shot requests. PM me with them anytime. <strong>


	13. Full Potential

**I know I told some people that I would update on Wednesday so I'm really sorry that it didn't happen. I've had exams this week and then I get too tired to write and become creatively blocked. I hope you understand. **

**AlexaTheHedgehog: Thanks for the request. I like that idea so I'll be writing that one for sure! **

**Thank you everyone for all of the reviews. **

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>13: Full Potential <strong>

Sonic glowed brightly as the laser continued to be fired into his chest, screaming in agony as the robots kept him pinned in place, high in the air. The others continued to thrash about, trying to free themselves in order to help him, but the robots were too strong. Eggman continued laughing evilly from the platform, watching eagerly as Sonic tried to break free.

The pain was unbearable. He could feel every ounce of chaos energy that was being forced into his body, reacting with his system as he grew angrier at the sight of his friends having the very life squeezed out of them. His fur turned golden as he entered his super state, only the fact that he wasn't willingly accepting the power was wreaking havoc with his body. He felt like he was being torn into millions of pieces as his anger continued to boil. He grunted and groaned as he felt something beginning to snap.

"What's the matter Sonic?" Eggman teased. "Are you too pathetic to save your friends? Look at them! They're being crushed to death and it's all your fault."

"N-No." Sonic managed to choke out as every inch of his body continued to burn.

"You'll never be able to save them like you failed to save Amy."

Sonic's shocked red eyes flickered over to Eggman as he tried to read his expression. The mad doctor seemed so serious. Wasn't it actually a bluff after all? Was Amy really…gone?

"Yes Sonic, that stupid girl is dead as we speak and you know what, I think I did her a favour." He laughed. "But know this: she died wishing it was you that was the one dead."

"Noooooooooooooo!" Sonic screamed like a caged wild animal. His thrashing grew worse as he felt the brittle object inside his mind snap. No, not snap. Shatter. He felt his mind shatter like thin glass being thrown carelessly to the ground.

His friends watched in horror as the blue hedgehog's body began to twist and morph. The sight was so horrific that Tails turned away in fear whilst all the others could do was stare with wide eyes.

Sonic's colour changed. No longer was his fur a shiny royal blue. It changed into a dull, dark blue. His quills remained standing on end like his super state and a dark mist began to surround him, dancing off him in graceful waves, enforcing that he was a creature of great power. His whole body quivered, almost like he was having a seizure as his screams were replaced with occasional groans.

The room was silent as everyone stared. However that was soon broken as Eggman began to laugh again.

"It worked. It worked!" He bellowed. "Project Darkness was a success!"

Sonic's head snapped up at Eggman's voice. His eyes shot open, revealing nothing but white eyeballs; no pupils or irises. They glowed hauntingly in the dark mist that surrounded his form, creating deep feelings of dread in his friends as they held little to no emotion.

"With Sonic's current state at my command, I will be able to rule the universe! Because you actually a very powerful creature aren't you Sonic?" Eggman chuckled. "You've been holding back."

Sonic remained motionless.

"Yes, who knew you held such power inside you and now, with the help of the chaos emeralds, you have reached a new super state. A dark super state." He analysed.

"This is what you've been planning all this time?!" Shadow yelled. "Controlling Sonic so he'll help you rule the world?"

Eggman smirked. "You catch on fast Shadow."

"This is a new low Eggman." Knuckles growled out.

"Sonic! You have to fight this!" Tails cried out to his best friend, worried tears forming in his blue eyes.

Sonic continued to remain motionless.

"Sorry Tails, he'll only do as I tell him." Eggman pretended to sound guilty about that before he burst out laughing again. "Now, let's see your true power _Dark Sonic._" Eggman thought for a moment. "Ah yes, destroy your friends!"

The four of them gasped whilst Eggman watched in anticipation as Sonic's head slowly turned towards his friends. He stared at them emotionlessly for a few moments before his face seemed to ignite with pure rage. With one easy yank of his arms, he ripped the robots' arms clear out of their sockets. Sparks flew out of them and they made pathetic wheezing noises as they shut down before they fell limply to the ground with loud clattering sounds.

Sonic remained floating in the air, tossing the arms aside while Eggman squealed with delight.

"Magnificent!"

Sonic turned towards his friends and let out a small manic chuckle and flew towards them. They screamed and prepared for their imminent deaths, but all they heard was the sound of metal scraping against metal and the same sound of malfunctioning robots. The four of them fell to the floor as the robots' grip of them weakened and their metal parts collapsed around them. Their heads turned to look up at the same time to look at Sonic who remained hovering the air, tilting his head to one side as he smiled innocently at Eggman.

"What is the meaning of this?" Eggman demanded. "Destroy them!"

Sonic didn't do anything.

"I order you to destroy them now!"

Sonic tutted while shaking his head and everyone in the room cringed at the sound as it echoed horrifically, like someone scraping their finger nails on a blackboard.

"Now why would I do that?" Dark Sonic questioned excitedly, speaking for the first time and everyone continued to stare at him in fear. His voice still sounded like Sonic only with more of a cold, hard edge to it; like he was trying to hold back a burst of manic laughter.

"I don't take orders from anybody, certainly not you!" Dark Sonic laughed. "Now you will die!"

Eggman gasped and staggered backwards. "S-Sonic! Come on n-now. Y-You can't m-mean that?"

Dark Sonic began slowly floating in Eggman's direction, smirking at Eggman's discomfort.

"It's funny when you plead for your life. Bad people like you deserve to die." Dark Sonic's voice was mockingly sympathetic as Eggman backed away and pressed himself against the wall. There was no escape. Even Eggman wasn't truly sure how much power Sonic held now, but judging by the way he easily destroyed those robots without breaking a sweat, he was willing to bet he had a lot.

"FREEZE!"

GUN soldiers led by Rouge stormed into the room, all pointing their weapons at Eggman and Dark Sonic. They all froze in fear when they took in Sonic's new appearance, but Dark Sonic didn't seem affected by their presence as he viewed their weapons with distaste.

"Don't hurt him!" Tails pleaded as he stepped between the soldiers and Dark Sonic.

"No don't." Shadow agreed. "He seems to be incredibly powerful and we don't want to provoke him."

Dark Sonic continued to stare at the soldiers with a raised eyebrow. Challenging them. Daring them. The soldiers' fingers trembled on the triggers of their guns as they tried to look anywhere but the glowing white eyes that seemed to stare right into their souls. Everyone in the room was as still as a statue, timidly waiting to see what Dark Sonic did next like an unpredictable wild animal. Everyone jumped slightly when his head expectantly snapped back around to stare at Eggman.

Eggman squeaked in fright, trying to push himself further against the wall as if he somehow expected to morph through it.

"Sonic, I'm sorry, I won't hurt your friends anymore!" Eggman begged. "I'll retire into a nice countryside cottage and you'll never hear from me again! Please! I swear! Just give me a chance!"

"No chances." Sonic growled out and began floating towards him.

With trembling fingers, one of the GUN soldiers fired at Dark Sonic in fear whilst everyone cried out in fear of what might happen. The GUN soldier continued to sweat nervously as the bullet bounced off Dark Sonic and he stared at the spot where the bullet had hit him before glaring down at the soldier.

"That's why you never bring a rookie on these missions." Rouge muttered nervously.

Dark Sonic flew down towards them in a flash, snarling in anger whilst the other soldiers began panicking and shooting at him. The sound of gunfire was all that could be heard throughout the room. Eggman took this opportunity to escape in his mech now that Dark Sonic no longer had him cornered. The bullets continued to bounce off Sonic while Tails, Knuckles and Blaze ducked to avoid them. Shadow and Rouge sprang into action, trying to prevent the soldiers from shooting and angering Dark Sonic further.

"Great, Eggman got away." Knuckles huffed and Dark Sonic's ear twitched at his voice. He turned around, now ignoring the GUN soldiers, before flying out of the room.

"Where's he going?" Blaze asked, slowly standing up from the ground and dusting her purple dress off as she stared at the place where Dark Sonic had disappeared in horror.

"I don't know." Shadow replied. "But we need to find Amy." He then turned to the GUN soldiers. "You morons need to go after Eggman and bring him into custody. No doubt he won't have many weapons on him right now as his primary objective will be to get as far away from here as possible."

.

Amy felt like she was floating in an ocean of pain. She kept fading in and out of consciousness. She could hear loud noises echoing around the base and what sounded like gunfire. The noises bounced around in her head as if a million bees were stinging the inside of her skull repeatedly and she let out a small whimper, wondering when death would come to claim her. It couldn't be long now. She knew she had already lost a lot of blood and her periods of consciousness grew shorter and shorter. She could no longer move. She couldn't feel her hands and feet as she lay paralysed in a pool of her own blood, begging for death to take her away. No more pain.

The door of her cell creaked open, but still she remained motionless. She eyes fluttered open, half lidded as she tried to see whoever had just walked into the room. All she saw was a black mist and wondered if this was death. Her eyes closed again and she felt something cold press against her forehead. It felt nice against the burning pain and she concluded that this must be death. What else would explain the sudden pain fading away?

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" She heard familiar voices scream from the door and the wonderful cold touch left her forehead only to be replaced with different pairs of warm hands, checking her pulse, shaking her, demanding her attention.

People were talking at her, but she couldn't understand. She couldn't hear. Amy almost sighed with relief when she fell unconscious again and she prayed that this time, she wouldn't wake up again.

.

Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Cream and Blaze all sat silently in the hospital waiting room. Amy had been admitted here almost an hour ago after they had rescued her from Eggman's and Dark Sonic's clutches. Blaze had told Cream the news and the young rabbit insisted on being here. Tails swung his legs back and forth, gripping the sides of his seat while his blue eyes remained dead. Knuckles had his arms tightly folded with his eyes closed and a neutral expression with Shadow sat in a similar way, although he kept his eyes on the clock as the time changed to 12:09am. Cream was weeping into Blaze's shoulder, most of her pained cries inaudible as she was pressed so deeply into Blaze's neck. Blaze kept one arm loosely wrapped around the young, distressed rabbit while she gazed forward, appearing to be in sort of trance like state of disbelief.

Cream finally sniffed, breaking the silence.

"Do you think Amy is going to be ok?" She asked, her voice breaking as she struggled to contain her sobs.

Blaze sighed, coming back into reality. "I'm not sure Cream, but Amy's strong."

"Yeah, if she has any fight left in her." Knuckles grunted, slouching further into the fabric chairs of the hospital waiting room. They were the only ones there with only the occasional few doctor rushing passed and a few patients wandering the corridors during the early hour.

"Knuckles." Tails hissed.

"Just trying to be realistic." Knuckles sighed. "I don't want her to die any more than you do but – "

Cream whimpered when Knuckles mention the word 'die' and everyone turned to glare at the red echidna.

"It can't come to that." Cream cried. "Amy and I had so many plans for the future. She's my best friend and and and," She burst into another round of tears, unable to finish her sentence.

"The doctors are doing everything they can." Tails sighed, pinching his forehead in stress. "There's nothing we can do but sit here and wait."

"Come on Cream, let's go to the café." Blaze pulled Cream up by her hand and gently led her away from the waiting room, leaving the boys alone and hopefully distract Cream a little bit.

Once they were out of ear shot, they immediately began talking about events.

"Where do you think he's gone?" Tails asked Shadow, both of them looking incredibly troubled.

Shadow let out a small sigh as he unfolded his arms to rest them on his legs.

"I don't know, but it's a good thing we got to Amy before he could do anything."

Tails nodded in agreement. "But Sonic wouldn't hurt her, would he? I mean, he saved us from Eggman."

"There's no telling what he could do. As far as he knows, Amy works for Eggman so he could've easily finished her off for good."

Tails and Knuckles both shuddered at the thought.

"So Amy wasn't working for Eggman the whole time?" Tails gasped.

Shadow shook his head. "No, she was acting as a double agent. I approached her about it and she immediately took up on the offer, hoping to impress dark mist boy. Only she was found out and I'm not quite sure how and the events leading up to her imprisonment."

"That's pretty crazy." Knuckles whistled lowly. "Amy, a double agent. I never guessed."

"Then she did her job well." Shadow smirked. "It was her task to find out Eggman's plans and access information about project darkness whilst pretending to work for Eggman in order to get close him. It was important that she carried out his orders so he would trust her and be convinced of her loyalty. That's why she stole the chaos emerald."

"Amy did that?" Tails gasped.

Shadow nodded. "Then it was me that crashed your computer to prevent you from tracking it and blowing her cover. Eggman gave her the task to spy on Sonic so it was important that she kept up pretences on both sides."

"I still think she should've just told us." Knuckles snapped.

Shadow shot him a glare. "It was a need to know operation. Amy was under my command and I told her she couldn't."

"Sonic was right about you controlling her then." Knuckles replied, glaring back at him.

"We did what we had to do to save Sonic."

"Yeah? Well look where that got you."

"Will you guys shut up?!" Tails yelled abruptly and both of them stared at him in shock. Tails never shouted at anyone.

"In case you've forgotten, one of my best friends is in a serious condition so can we save the arguments for later?!"

Both Knuckles and Shadow looked down in shame, saying nothing as they continued to listen to the loud tick of the clock.

"What are we going to do if she dies?" Knuckles asked, breaking the silence.

Tails fought back tears. "I don't know."

"What about Sonic? What are we going to tell him?"

"In the state that he's in?" Shadow frowned at Knuckles in disbelief. "Sonic's emotions obviously play some part in this new dark form of his so telling him should be the last thing we do if we want to have any hope of bringing the real Sonic back."

"Real Sonic." Tails repeated in a whisper. Was the dark creature he had seen before him in Eggman's base no longer his best friend? Was Sonic now just there in body? No one truly knew for sure exactly what Eggman had done to him. Or even if there was any way to reverse it. Was the Sonic they all knew and loved gone forever? Losing both Sonic _and _Amy. Tails wasn't sure how the gang was going to cope.

All three of them looked up as a doctor poked his head around the corner. An elderly looking male owl with spectacles on the end of his small beak, wearing a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. He stared at the three of them, unsure.

"Are you Amy's friends? The ones who brought her in?" He asked.

They all stood up quickly and nodded.

"What's going on? Is she going to be ok?" Tails voice cracked slightly with emotion as he awaited the doctor's analysis of Amy's condition.

The doctor sighed sympathetically and they all instantly knew it wasn't good news.

"I think you should prepare for the worst." The doctor explained.

"W-what?" Tails gasped out in disbelief. This could not be happening…it had to be a nightmare.

"What do you mean prepare for the worst?!" Knuckles demanded angrily. "You're doctors! You're supposed to be helping her!"

"I'm afraid we can only do so much." The doctor remained patient. "Amy is in a very critical condition. She has received major trauma to the head and lost a lot of blood. We've managed to stop the bleeding and performed and emergency transfusion, but now all we can do is wait and see if she'll pull through."

"What chances are we looking at of her making it?" Tails demanded as tears flowed freely from his eyes.

The doctor sighed. "It's unlikely she will make it through the night."

The three of them gasped. Knuckles sank back down into his chair, Shadow remained still and Tails began to sob.

"But, she can't die!" Tails yelled. "She's so young!"

"I suggest that you say your goodbyes and say anything that needs to be said." The doctor suggested sadly. "Follow me to her room."

.

Amy awoke groggily to the sound of an annoying beeping sound. Something was strapped to her face and she reached a hand up to move it only to notice that she had loads of tubes sticking out of her arms. Where was she? She was lying down and she couldn't move. She immediately began to panic and the beeping increased with it. She whimpered in pain as she weakly tried to yank her arms free of the tubes.

Managing to move her head to the side, she realised through the haze in her brain that she was in a hospital room. Panic continued to fill her body as a dark mist walked into the room. Her green eyes widened as it slowly stalked towards her. She was just about able to make out a pair of glowing white eyes through her blurred vision and let out a choked gasp once she realised it was reaching out to her gently. Like it wanted to cup her cheeks…or strangle her…

.

Tails, Knuckles and Shadow continued to follow the doctor up the stairs and onto a long corridor with a large sign that said 'intensive care'. They continued to follow quietly before a loud, bloodcurdling, familiar scream caught their attention.

The three of them exchanged a glance before they pushed passed the shocked doctor and followed the scream into a small hospital room. Gasping at the frightening and bizarre sight, they all froze upon bursting into the room.

Amy's legs were thrashing about on the bed, but the upper part of her body remained still. Her eyes were wide and wild with fear as they locked on something that was in front of her face. Her oxygen mask had fallen from her face and few tubes had removed themselves, sounding the alarm to the doctors. She kept angling her face away, her lips pressed tightly shut as she continued to kick with surprising strength for her condition. Amy finally seemed to manage to wiggle her arms free and looked like she was trying to claw at something above her, only nothing was there.

She looked almost possessed.

Doctors and nurses ran in, pushing Tails, Knuckles and Shadow out of the way as they immediately went to work to help Amy calm down.

"She may be going into shock." They heard one of the doctors note as he analysed her rapidly increasing heart rate. Amy screamed loudly, startling the doctors before they began trying to attach the tubes back into her. A nurse pinned the oxygen mask to Amy's face and she seemed to relax once it was back on and the doctors sighed with relief when her thrashing ceased and she seemed to calm down.

"NO!" Tails cried out as her heart rate continued to slow.

"We're losing her!" One of the doctors cried out as he began performing CPR.

One of the nurses rushed over to push the three spectators out of the room, but not before they heard the long drawn out beep that reported the sudden halt in Amy's heart.

* * *

><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to change the rating of this story due to content that will come up in the future. I'll leave it for now, but if you guys think it needs changing, then let me know. <strong>


	14. Unknown Motivation

**Thank you for all of the reviews! The feedback is always much appreciated. **

**I own nothing.**

* * *

><p><strong>14: Unknown Motivation <strong>

_One Month Later…_

In a dimly lit conference room in GUN headquarters, Shadow was sat in a leather recliner with his arms tightly folded and staring forward with his normal, cold, hard red eyes. Rouge was leaning against the polished oak table, drumming her fingers against it as she waited. Neither of them spoke or looked at each other as they remained in the room on the Commander's orders.

The heavy metal door suddenly opened, causing them both to look up as the Commander walked confidently in, his hands clasped behind his back and his head held up high.

"Commander." Rouge nodded in greeting as he stopped in front of the large TV screen in front of them that dominated most of the wall.

"Agent Rouge. Agent Shadow." The Commander nodded back.

"Are more going to be arriving to this meeting?" Rouge asked as she gestured with her gloved hand at the empty conference room around them.

The Commander shook his head before adjusting his jacket that proudly sported many gold medals for his service to the nations. His brown and blue eyes watching Shadow and Rouge carefully before he spoke up.

"I actually just need to speak with the both of you." He explained. "It's about Dark Sonic."

"Have you caught him?" Rouge asked, leaning forward slightly in anticipation.

"No." He replied. "I know that I've had you two busy with the mission of capturing Doctor Eggman, but I'm now transferring you to another operation: the capture of Dark Sonic."

"Impossible." Rouge quickly shook her head at the Commander's request.

"Maybe it would've been without our help." Shadow spoke up for the first time. "Dark Sonic is made up of Chaos energy much like me. I may most certainly stand a chance."

"So this is about proving your better than Sonic again?" Rouge rolled her eyes.

"No." Shadow growled out. "This is more than some personal vendetta now. Dark Sonic is causing mayhem everywhere and he needs to be stopped. Then with Tails' help, we may be able to find a way to cure him."

"And what if Tails can't find one? Finding Eggman is our best bet. He created this…creature. Surely he must know how to solve this problem?"

Shadow sighed. "If you want to continue hunting for the Doctor then fine, but I'm turning my attention towards Dark Sonic. I made a promise to Amy."

The room became silent at the mention of her name. Rouge stopped drumming her fingers and even the Commander bowed his head slightly.

"Her efforts were valiant." The Commander spoke carefully. "We'll make sure that she is never forgotten here and what she sacrificed in the name of justice."

Shadow gave a firm nod. "So what am I to do about the Dark Sonic problem the world now has?"

The Commander pulled a remote out of his pocket and switched the TV on. A map of the planet appeared on the screen and Shadow and Rouge stared up at in expectation, waiting for the Commander to explain. He pressed another button and ten red dots appeared in many random places.

"These are the places Dark Sonic has been spotted this week alone." The Commander explained, placing his hands behind his back again. "The most recent sighting was just north of Spagonia. Eyewitnesses quickly reported that he was just hovering in the air until our forces attacked and he turned violent. There were no deaths, but there were a few severe casualties. During the sighting before that one, some hikers had spotted him near a volcano. They said that he seemed to be looking for something. There doesn't seem to be any pattern in the places he has visited - at least, not that we could find anyway."

"What could he possibly be looking for?" Rouge asked in confusion.

"We don't know, but he's too powerful for our soldiers to face. There have been no deaths so far, but at this rate, Dark Sonic could end up wiping us all out. You two are our best and most powerful agents and that's why we need your help."

"You flatter us." Rouge winked at him.

"Agent Rouge, this is no time jokes." The Commander snapped. "Dark Sonic must be stopped at all costs."

"At all costs?" Shadow questioned suspiciously.

The Commander gave him a cold hard stare. "We received word from the President that we have permission to kill him."

"What? Not Sonic, surely?!" Rouge gasped, placing a hand on her chest in shock. "After everything he has done for this planet?"

"We're not even sure he is Sonic anymore." The Commander replied angrily. "He's showed no signs of changing back to normal and we can't take any chances with the safety of civilians at stake. He is a dangerous threat to everyone now."

Shadow and Rouge remained quiet as they knew better than to argue too much with their superior. They needed to save Sonic and they needed to remain in the Commander's good books to do so. If they were fired, they would lose their connection with GUN and they would have no idea what they were planning to do to Sonic if they caught him before they did. By the looks of it, Sonic's future didn't look very good.

"Are you both in, or not?" The Commander demanded, giving them a cold stare.

Shadow and Rouge both exchanged a glance before they nodded.

"Good." The Commander smiled. "I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have some issues. Now how exactly are we going to capture Dark Sonic?"

"I think we need to bring his friends into it." Shadow proposed and the Commander stared at him as if he was insane.

"Putting innocent civilians in danger? Are you mad?"

"They know him better than anyone." Shadow explained his logic. "His best friend Tails is just as smart as Doctor Eggman and they all have experience with Sonic's super states. They may be able to provide the much needed advantage."

The Commander thought about Shadow's idea for a moment before he finally nodded in agreement. "Very well. Shadow, I leave you in charge of this operation. Put an end to this madness."

"You bet we will." Rouge smirked.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sudden loud shriek of the alarm. The room turned to red and the three of them covered their ears at the sudden loud noise.

"Warning: intruder alert." The alarm bellowed.

"Where? How in the world did they manage to get in?" The Commander gasped out as he fiddled with the remote and switched the screen to show the building's CCTV. "Impossible." He whispered as a familiar dark mist appeared in the jail cell sections.

Dark Sonic seemed be aware that he was being watched as he turned around, his white eyes staring straight at the camera; straight at the Commander. He waved cockily, smirking before he easily ripped the first jail cell door open as if it was merely a thin piece of paper.

The Commander clenched his teeth in anger as he punched buttons on his communicator. "Attention soldiers: Dark Sonic is in the prison cells. Prepare to attack, I repeat, prepare to attack." He then looked up at Shadow and Rouge. "You know what to do."

They both nodded and ran out of the room. Shadow skated along the corridors down towards the prison cells. Rouge flew above him as he pushed passed soldiers who were moving much slower than him, scrambling about in confusion as they tried to make sense of what was going on. Apart from the Black Arms and Doctor Eggman, no one else had managed to break into GUN's base.

"What do you think he wants?" Rouge shouted through cupped hands so Shadow could hear her over the loud shriek of the alarm.

"I don't know." He called back. "But we're about to find out."

He spin dashed through the prison cell entrance, the place where some of the worst criminals were sent where a closer eye could be kept on them before the majority of them were executed. Shadow's red eyes scanned the long wide room, full of many tightly secure prison cells made of the most powerful metal alloys. Many of the security guards were on the ground. Whether they were dead or simply passed out, Shadow couldn't tell. He could see Dark Sonic a few yards ahead of him, completely ignoring his presence as he walked through one of the close jail cell doors.

"He can walk through walls?!" Rouge shrieked in fear.

Shadow wasn't too surprised. He knew having all seven chaos emeralds pretty much allowed the user to accomplish anything. Dark Sonic must be utilising their full potential.

Shadow ran towards the area Dark Sonic had vanished and over the blaring of the alarm, his ear twitched at the sound of screaming inside the cell. Soldiers ran in behind Shadow, taking their positions and ready to back Shadow up. Shadow paid them no attention, knowing that anything they did would be useless.

Rouge hung back slightly as Shadow typed in the code for the cell and the doors slowly opened. Dark Sonic was leaning over the criminal with a murderous expression. The human he held by the scruff of his collar was staring up at Dark Sonic with fear as blood dripped down his body.

"Do you know where he is?!" Dark Sonic hissed at the criminal. The criminal was whimpering and shaking in fright and his hands tightly clasped Dark Sonic's wrists, trying to push him off.

"ANSWER ME!" Dark Sonic snarled out, his powerful voice bouncing off the walls of the cell and making everyone shudder. The soldiers aimed their guns at Dark Sonic, preparing to shoot, but Shadow gestured for them to wait, hoping that Dark Sonic may reveal some of his intentions.

"I-I don't know." The criminal managed to squeak out.

Dark Sonic sighed in frustration before he grabbed the criminal by his dark hair and began slamming his head repeatedly against the wall. The criminal let out a strangled gurgling sound as blood dribbled from his mouth. The sickening crack of his skull breaking echoed in the small jail cell and in the minds of the spectators. The criminal's head had been smashed into an unrecognisable red mush on the metal floor of the jail cell and Dark Sonic remained standing in the pool of blood, seemingly unaffected by what he had just done. He stared at Shadow with a fierce expression.

"Never knew killing was your style." Shadow noted, folding his arms across his chest, showing he was unintimidated.

"The scum was on death row anyway. I just sped up the process." Dark Sonic replied coldly with a slight smile.

Shadow merely chuckled. "You're acting like a child who can't get their own way. I can tell you're new to having this amount of power. Unlike me, you never had the guts to use it."

"I wouldn't piss me off if I were you Shadow." Dark Sonic smirked.

"You're insane!" Rouge cried out from behind the soldiers. "Just change back Sonic, you've done enough damage."

"Why would I change back from this?" Dark Sonic purred. "I've never felt so powerful and now I know what I have to do."

Shadow narrowed his eyes. At last they were getting somewhere. "And what do you have to do?"

Dark Sonic bared his teeth at Shadow like a wild animal. "Why should I tell someone like you? Someone who betrayed me!"

"What are you talking about?" Shadow demanded in confusion. Sonic really had gone insane.

"Oh, I think you know." Dark Sonic's smile widened.

"Sonic, please just stop this!" Rouge begged, stepping forward. Dark Sonic ignored her so she resorted to drastic measures. "Think of Amy."

Dark Sonic's smile abruptly faded away.

"Does her memory really mean so little to you?" Rouge snapped at him.

Dark Sonic continued to stare at her, his mouth pressed in a tight thin line before he burst out laughing. Everyone exchanged glances before staring back at the laughing demon in front of them. His laughing cut to stop and in a sudden switch in mood, he glared at Rouge in warning.

"Don't mention her name if you value your life." His voice was snake-like and filled with venom, like he was about to strike at any wrong move.

"Amy Amy Amy." Shadow mocked. "I hope you're proud of yourself."

Dark Sonic growled and was in front of Shadow in the blink of an eye with a hand clasped tightly around the black hedgehog's throat.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you." Dark Sonic snarled up at Shadow.

The soldiers began firing at Dark Sonic which distracted him for just the right amount of time for Shadow to kick Dark Sonic in the face with all the strength he could muster up. Dark Sonic let go in surprise at Shadow's sheer display of strength and Shadow quickly skated away, hoping to lead Dark Sonic away from everyone where he could do no harm.

"Remember how we would race?" Shadow teased. "Let's see what you've got now then."

Dark Sonic's competitive nature kicked in as he turned his attention away from the shooting GUN soldiers and back to Shadow who was running away from him at high speeds. He gave chase and Shadow smirked. Dark Sonic easily caught up, floating along the ground rather than running and quickly pounced on Shadow. He punched Shadow so hard that he flew back into the metal wall and broke through it. Shadow wiped the blood from his nose and quickly got back on his feet, not willing to be taken down to easily.

"Is that all you've got?" Shadow mocked, getting into a fighting stance, ignoring the pain.

Dark Sonic's empty white eyes stared back at him before he abruptly stared up into the air. His ear twitched as if he'd heard something that Shadow hadn't and he stared at Dark Sonic in confusion. Dark Sonic then looked back down at Shadow and smirked at him.

"I'll deal with you later, but right now I have somewhere I need to be." Dark Sonic let out an excited chuckle before disappearing faster than anyone could blink.

Rouge ran over to Shadow, her high heels clicking against the metal floor as she stared at him with worried eyes.

"Are you ok?" Her voice was full of concern. "It looked like he gave you quite the beating."

"I'm fine." Shadow replied gruffly. The only thing that felt hurt was his pride.

"Why did he back away from the fight?" Rouge questioned as they began walking back.

"He said he had somewhere to be." Shadow repeated Dark Sonic's words, feeling just as confused as Rouge sounded. "We have to find out what he's doing. The Commander was right though, he's definitely looking for something." He added, thinking back to the conversation with the Commander.

They stopped outside the jail cell that he had broken in to. They gazed in at the bloody mess, but Rouge could only take so much before she lowered her eyes.

Shadow sighed in frustration before turning his back on the mangled corpse. It looked like Dark Sonic had now indeed resulted to killing.

He stormed passed the GUN soldiers. "Keep this place more heavily guarded. Any unusual activity is to be reported to me straight away. If you encounter Dark Sonic, don't approach him, just observe everything he does."

The soldiers saluted to him. Shadow turned back to stare at the jail cell before turning back around and walking out. "And somebody get a mop."

.

_Amy…_

_Amy please wake up…just wake up…_

_We all miss you…_

_Amy please…_

.

Voices. _I must follow the voices. I know those voices. Cream. _

Amy jolted awake and sat bolt upright, the wires and tubes attached to her body were pulled forward and the bright lights blinded her. Her ears rang and her head felt incredibly dizzy as the world began to spin around her. She fell backwards onto what felt like a bed, the soft pillow cushioning her fall and she pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead, hoping to relieve the sudden unexpected head rush.

"AMY!" She heard a young female voice scream in panic and shock next to her. "NURSE! DOCTOR! TAILS! ANYBODY!"

"Uhhh!" Amy groaned as Cream's voice rang through her head. "Cream, please keep it down." Her voice cracked as it felt like it hadn't been used in a while. Her throat felt like sand paper and every movement made her body ache as it switched back on.

Cream burst into tears next to her and she felt her friend's arms drape over her body as gently as she could.

"Is it really you?" Cream sobbed into her stomach.

"Erm…yeah?" Amy rasped out in confusion before coughing violently and tried to sit up again.

Tails and a doctor ran into the room, both freezing momentarily to gaze at her with astounded expressions. The doctor then ran over to her and checked all her readings before staring down at her in disbelief as if she had grown two heads. Amy turned away from him uncomfortably and looked at her friends who were also staring at her with the same expression.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Amy began panicking again and the beeping sound next to her increased.

"Y-You're at the hospital Amy." Tails explained as he collapsed down into the nearby chair.

"How much do you remember Amy?" The doctor asked her as she stared down at her arms with tube strapped into them. She felt another one tapped under her nose which gave her an uncomfortable feeling in the back of her throat.

"I-I don't know. I can't think straight right now." Amy whimpered.

The doctor's dark shiny eyes turned sympathetic. "Of course, don't worry, this is completely normal."

"What's normal?" Amy gasped out. "What happened to me?"

"Amy please calm down." Cream pleaded, staring at her pink friend as if she was about to suddenly die.

"But I don't understand." Amy coughed again as her voice cracked.

The doctor sighed. "Amy…you've been in a deep coma for just over a month."

No one said anything for a few moments as the news sank in with Amy. She stared down at her bed sheets in confusion. A coma? What? How? The last thing she remembered was…Eggman hitting the back of her head with something.

"He did this to me." Amy suddenly gasped out and the others leaned forward with interest.

"Who?" Tails asked.

"Eggman." Amy began to explain. "We were talking and then we were fighting and he hit me on the back of the head with something."

"So that's what happened." Tails mumbled as he clenched his fist in anger.

"You lost a lot of blood Amy. Your friends got you here just in time. We gave you a blood transfusion and stitched your head up but we weren't too sure on how much brain damage you had received. The chances of you surviving weren't high and you did die for a few minutes. But then, all of a sudden your heart just re-started and you fell into a coma. We didn't think you were ever going to wake up as your head injury was incredibly severe. You showed no sign of waking up anytime soon." He checked her readings again. "But now you seem to be the picture of health. Looks like you must have a guardian angel."

Amy's eyes were wide as she digested this information and her friends watched her carefully.

"I'll leave you three alone." The doctor said before making his way out of the room.

There was a period of awkward silence as no one knew what to say before Cream burst into another round of tears and flung herself at Amy again, clinging to her stomach as she sobbed into the sheets.

"Hey, it's ok Cream." Amy hushed her. "I'm awake now, aren't I?"

Tails sighed. "The doctors were talking about switching off your life support machine last week if you showed no signs of improvement. Cream has been visiting every day, talking to you, trying to help you wake up."

Amy stroked the back of Cream's head in comfort, touched that her friend had remained by her side. "Thank you Cream." Amy whispered as a single tear flowed out from the corner of her eye.

"It's good to have you back Amy." Tails beamed at her. "You've had a lot of people rooting for you." He gestured around the room at all of the colourful flowers and Amy gasped, kicking herself for not noticing.

"You guys." She gasped out as she fought to keep her tears back. "I can't believe I was asleep for over a month. I knew I wasn't a morning person, but that's ridiculous. Sorry that I worried you guys."

Tails stared at her with wide eyes. "Why are you sorry? Eggman's the one who attacked you."

Amy sighed. "I wish I could remember everything, but my memory is incredibly fuzzy."

Tails nodded in understanding. "Short term memory loss if normal. I'm sure it'll come back to you."

"I'm sure it will. Hey, where's Sonic?"

Both Cream and Tails froze at her question. They knew she was bound to ask it sooner or later. It was inevitable.

"He's…away right now." Tails bit his lip as he lied, choosing his words carefully. Well, it wasn't technically a lie.

"Away?"

"Err yeah. Battling Doctor Eggman." Tails gave her a nervous smile.

Amy's ears flattened in disappointment, feeling slightly upset that she wouldn't be able to see his face after a month of being asleep. She wondered if he was worried about her. Did he visit her? She felt incredibly out of the loop with everything. It looked like she had a whole months worth of catching up to do.

"Is he ok?"

"Oh yeah, he's fine." Tails said in a strained voice. "I'm sure he'll be back soon."

Cream shot him a dark look which Amy managed to catch.

"What are you two hiding from me?" She demanded.

"Nothing." Cream smiled at her. "I'm just so happy you're awake and well." Her arms tightened around her and Amy smiled down at her decided to forget about Tails' and Cream's strange behaviour.

For now.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	15. Broken Promises

**Wow guys, this story now has over 100 reviews! Thank you so much! I'm so happy that most of you are enjoying the story. **

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>15: Broken Promises<strong>

_The large, bright, full moon was low in the sky with many of the stars that dotted the night sky being concealed by thick blankets of cloud. The area was dark and eerily quiet as Amy found herself walking up the stone steps leading up to the master emerald shrine as quietly as possible. No wildlife could be heard and her ears remained stiff as she listened out for anything threatening. She continued to stalk forward in an animalistic way as she crouched low, placing her finger tips down on the moss covered ancient architecture, crawling like a demonic creature to the top of the steps. _

_The glowing of the master emerald came into view, illuminating the surrounding area. She felt herself smile involuntarily as she could feel the power radiating off it. Now she just needed to get it out of here. Gently raising her arm, she leaned forward to touch the beautiful, mystical object before she was interrupted. _

"_What do you think you're doing here?!" A familiar voice yelled from behind before gasping as Amy felt herself turn to face him. "YOU?!"_

_._

"Amy? Amy!"

Amy felt herself being violently shook awake. Her eyes snapped open and she sat upright in bed, gazing around the hospital room until her eyesight locked with the worried brown eyes of Cream. She sighed with relief and yawned, rubbing her eyes as the dream began to disappear from her memory, but still couldn't shake off the intense feelings she had felt in it.

"Hey Cream." Amy smiled, still feeling a little sleepy. "What's up?"

"You were singing in your sleep." Cream replied a little nervously.

Amy's eyes widened. That was new.

"Singing?"

"Yeah, I didn't recognise the tune though and the lyrics were too quiet."

"Hmmm."

Before Amy could think any more of it, the doctor walked in with a bright smile on his face.

"Good news Amy!" He exclaimed. "You can go home today."

"Really?!" Amy and Cream both squealed in delight.

The doctor nodded. "Your injuries seem to have completely healed and you really have baffled us all Amy. Your rate of recovery has been extraordinary!"

"I keep telling you that you're special Amy." Cream hugged her friend tightly before releasing her as she realised something.

"I'll go and call Mother to tell her the news."

Cream merrily skipped out of the room and the doctor smiled down at Amy.

"You're really lucky to have a friend like her. She refused to leave your side even for a second." He explained.

Amy smiled proudly at the spot Cream had vanished in. "I know."

"Even though you have healed really quickly, I still recommend that you take it easy for the next few weeks." The doctor ordered seriously, pointing the end of his pen at her. "And if you begin experiencing any problems, no matter how trivial they seem, come straight back. You can never be too careful with head injuries."

"Yes doctor." Amy giggled before becoming serious as the doctor began to walk out of the room. "Doctor?" She called back to him, making him turn back around.

"Yes?"

"After head injuries and being in comas and all that, is it normal to have nightmares?" Amy asked, feeling slightly embarrassed.

She hadn't told anyone, but since waking up from her coma, she kept having nightmares. They were often vivid, intense, but she could never fully remember them when she woke up. However, she would always jolt awake in a cold sweat and sometimes felt sick before recovering. She didn't know whether she was just being silly or not

"I wouldn't say it was unusual." The doctor reassured her. "You might just be experiencing some post-traumatic stress from having been attacked like you were. I can refer you for counselling if you want?"

"No no, it's fine. I'm sure it'll pass. Maybe I'm just stressed?"

"Perhaps." The doctor smiled at her reassuringly. "But if you need anything, then don't hesitate to ask."

"I won't." Amy sighed before smiling. "Thanks for everything doctor."

The doctor waved a hand at her dismissively. "All part of the job. I don't do it for the thank yous."

Amy relaxed back into her sheets as the doctor left the room and awaited Cream's return, possibly with Tails alongside her who might be picking them up. The TV had been left in the room from the previous night where Amy and Cream had spent most of their time watching movies. She picked up the remote from her nightstand and flicked it onto the news, hoping to catch up on everything that she had missed this past month.

Sonic suddenly entered her thoughts and Amy sighed at the fact that he had never come to visit her. All Tails had told her was that they had found her unconscious in Eggman's base. So far it didn't look like they knew about her double agent work and she wondered how far Shadow and Rouge had got in the mission. No one had told her much and it was frustrating her. She'd often been too tired to argue with them though, often yielding to Cream's distractions of movies and magazine reading, whilst at night when Cream had to leave, she tried to regain her lost memories. Nothing so far. Everything after Eggman hit her on the head was a huge fuzzy blur. She knew there was something there. Something important.

Sighing and shaking her head, Amy turned her attention back towards the TV, hoping to distract herself from her frustrating amnesia and ignorance. The words 'breaking news' flashed on the screen and Amy paid close attention at how seriously the anchor was now looking as the human pressed a finger against his earphone, listening intently at whatever he was being told.

"Ladies and gentlemen, news just in has revealed that Dark Sonic is currently attacking Westopolis. All GUN troops have been deployed and citizens have been urged to stay in their homes."

Amy choked on her own gasp and nearly fell out of bed at what she was seeing on the screen. A helicopter shot revealed a small dark creature hovering above the skyline of the city before zooming down to the streets below. The creature look an awful lot like…Sonic. And didn't the news reader just call the creature…_Dark Sonic? _What was this? Some kind of sick joke?

Attacking the city? Sonic would never do a thing like that! It couldn't be him. Even though there was clearly a likeness between them, this creature's quills were stuck up and he was a lot darker in colour than Sonic was. Had they mistaken someone else for Sonic again? Was someone out committing crimes again and the media was blaming Sonic?

A light gasp behind her made Amy jump and her head snapped around to meet the shocked and horrified gaze of Cream as she stared at the TV.

Amy laughed nervously. "Do you see this Cream? This has to be some kind of joke."

Cream shot Amy a sympathetic look before closing her eyes, visibly upset.

"Right?" Amy squeaked out, desperately trying to cling onto her theory. A lump formed in her throat as Cream refused to answer of even meet her eyes. This couldn't be true. No.

Amy pulled at her quills in stress before jumping out of bed, ignoring the sudden rush of blood to her head. She grabbed Cream by the shoulders and shook her slightly in agitation until Cream opened her eyes.

"Cream, please tell me what's going on. This all just has to be some sick joke." Amy pleaded, her voice cracking with fear.

"Amy, I think you need to have a small talk with Tails."

.

Amy couldn't shake the absolute feeling of dread as she was led out of the hospital. Tails had grabbed her by the arm, leading her away while Cream walked next to them, shaking slightly as her eyes darted around.

"Will someone please say something?" Amy begged, not being able to take their enigmatic behaviour anymore.

"Sssh!" Tails shushed her quickly as he led them towards the Tornado. "We can't take our chances and have him find you." He added in a firm whisper and Amy's eyes widened in alarm. Who were they talking about? Sonic? Surely not.

Tails helped Amy onto the wing of the plane where she proceeded to climb into her seat without argument. Cream followed her, flying up and settling behind her as Tails started the engine. He briefly looked around before taking off. The plane ride was spent in silence as Amy felt her hands begin to shake and a sick feeling entered her stomach. She knew she wasn't going to like whatever Tails had to say to her.

"Where's your mom, Cream?" Tails asked as the engine noise died down after they landed.

"She's out shopping Mr Tails." Cream replied as she hopped out.

"So that gives us plenty of time to explain things." Tails sighed sadly as he and Amy both climbed out. "Amy, you'll be staying with Cream and Vanilla for a while so they can keep an eye on you."

"I'm not a baby you know." Amy growled out, taking offense. "I can take care of myself."

"Yes, but you heard what the doctor said." Tails remained calm, gesturing for her to follow him inside.

Amy sighed and followed Tails and Cream into the house. It was dark and quiet inside and they all sat together in the dimly lit living room before Amy broke the silence.

"Ok, so now can you tell me what's going on?" She demanded.

"I guess I should start from the beginning." Tails sighed, looking tired and much older than his actual age. Amy couldn't help but notice how stressed and tired he was looking. She hadn't really picked up on it before, but as he sat next to the floral lamp, she could see just how dark the circles were under his eyes.

"Sonic found the letter from Eggman in your house." He began.

"What letter?" Amy immediately interrupted him before she gasped. "You know that I was working as a double agent?"

Tails nodded. "Shadow explained everything to us after we took you to hospital."

"But Eggman and I never communicated through letters…it was always by phone." Then it hit her. "He set me up!"

"It would appear so. Eggman seemed to have outsmarted all of us with this one." Tails explained. "Sonic found it and it convinced him that you were in fact were for Eggman to get revenge on him. He followed the letter's instructions to Emerald Hill where he saw you and Eggman talking and then left to see me. He explained what he saw to me and then took off to go find Eggman at his base. He also seemed pretty convinced that it was Shadow who was forcing you to work for Eggman."

"Shadow?" Amy asked in confusion.

Tails shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Don't ask me. He seems to have a personal vendetta against Shadow lately. Anyway, I brought Knuckles and Blaze along with me to try and help Sonic out. It turned out the whole thing was trap and Eggman captured us all. It seems that you had also managed to activate your emergency signal as Shadow also came to help. Little did we know that Eggman was counting on you doing that, so Shadow arrived with the exact thing that Eggman needed. The final chaos emerald. He placed it in this weapon he had created and he shot it at Sonic."

Amy whimpered as tears formed in her eyes, threatening to spill over. What had she done?

Tails continued. "Then it just happened. He changed. He suddenly turned into this powerful creature. He freed us from the robots and tried to attack Eggman until the GUN soldiers arrived, distracting him long enough for Eggman to get away. Then Dark Sonic just left without any explanation and then we went to go and look for you. We finally found you in a prison cell, but when we got there, Dark Sonic was leaning over you. We thought he was trying to kill you and as soon as he saw us, he vanished."

Amy hid her face in her hands as she could hear her heartbeat and feel it jumping about erratically in her chest. She didn't know if she wanted to hear anymore of Tails' explanation. Sonic. Her Sonic had tried to kill her. Maybe she deserved it. After all, she was the one who had created this mess. She was the real evil creature in this situation.

"He's been on a rampage ever since." Tails' voice began to shake as he thought about his best friend. "The whole planet is in chaos. Many people are afraid to leave their homes and Eggman has gone missing. GUN are doing everything they can, but Dark Sonic is just too powerful."

Without warning, Amy suddenly collapsed.

She slouched in the armchair, her head slumped against the right arm, her eyes closed and her breathing slightly laboured as Cream cried out and ran over to her.

"Amy!" Cream tried to shake her, but Tails' voice stopped her.

"Don't Cream, just let her mind cope. It was a lot to take in."

Cream began crying as she hugged Amy's limp, unconscious body. "Why is this all happening? Why did Eggman have to do all this? I just want things to go back to normal."

Tails stared out of the window at the dark sky, wondering what Dark Sonic was doing right now. At that exact moment there was a knock on the door and both Tails and Cream froze.

"Are you expecting anyone?" Tails asked nervously.

Cream shook her head, her eyes wide in fright. "No. Could it be Dark Sonic?"

"I highly doubt an all-powerful being would simply knock on the door." Tails chuckled, but he wasn't sure if he was trying to calm Cream down or himself.

Tails got up off the couch and made his way towards the front door and was about to open the door with a shaky hand until the person behind it forced it open, almost pulling it off its hinges. The black hedgehog stormed inside, slamming the door behind him and made his way into the living room.

"Come on in Shadow." Tails grumbled sarcastically as he followed him in and sat back down again.

"You were taking too long to answer the door." Shadow huffed in reply, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow at Amy who was still passed out on the chair. "She's out of hospital already?"

"Yes Mr Shadow." Cream answered, wiping her eyes. "She healed really quickly, isn't that incredible?"

"Hmmm, I thought she'd never wake up." Shadow mumbled before getting to the point. "However this is no ridiculous social visit. I'm here on business."

"What is it?" Tails asked wondering what the ultimate life form could possibly want from them.

"I've been assigned the operation of catching Dark Sonic."

Tails rolled his eyes and resting his head on his elbows. "Good luck with that." He muttered bitterly. "Dark Sonic seems to be composed of negative chaos energy. You have no chance."

"Mr Tails!" Cream scolded. "I know you miss Mr Sonic, but there is no need to be rude. Mr Shadow is a guest."

"No the fox makes a valid point." Shadow grumbled. "Unfortunately it seems my efforts alone will not be sufficient. That's why I've come to enlist your help."

"My help?" Tails asked in disbelief and Shadow nodded. "Well don't look at me, I don't have any ideas."

"You're closer to Sonic than anyone and you've studied his super forms. Surely there must be a way to stop him?"

Tails shrugged. "Yeah, well I'm open to ideas."

"You honestly have nothing?" Shadow asked, a slightly hint of shock evident on his normally hard and cold features.

"Look Shadow I just don't know ok?!" Tails unexpectedly exploded. "In case you've forgotten, my best friend has been turned into a psycho, Amy nearly died and the planet is in a state of terror. I have no room to think right now so just leave me alone!"

"I honestly expected a better reaction out of you." Shadow shook his head in disappointment as Tails continued to glare down at the light carpeted floor.

"Mr Tails, if anyone can think of a way to stop him, it's you." Cream encouraged.

Tails ran a hand over his face. "Look, he seems invulnerable to all measures of attacks. He has the negative power of all seven chaos emeralds flowing through his body. He's invincible and the Sonic we knew and loved is dead." He choked on the last part.

A sudden groan caught their attention and they all looked over to Amy who was slowly coming around. She managed to push herself upright and she stared around the room before her eyes settled on Shadow. Her green eyes seemed to suddenly catch fire like burning copper before she charged towards Shadow. She clasped her hands around his throat and clenched them hard, choking him, but Shadow refused to fight back.

"YOU!" She screamed.

Cream screamed in terror at Amy's sudden aggressive behaviour whilst Tails watched in a state of complete shock.

"YOU PROMISED ME! YOU PROMISED THAT IF ANYTHING HAPPENED THAT YOU WOULD KEEP HIM SAFE!" Amy shrieked at him before Shadow easily pried her hands from around his neck. Amy settled for punching him instead, but her efforts made very little impact as Shadow simply stood there and let her get it out of her system as he stood motionless.

"You promised…" Amy whimpered before her knees gave out beneath her and she collapsed into a kneeling position on the ground and sobbed into her hands.

Shadow let out a sigh. "And I'm still going to keep that promise." He said determinedly before turning back to Tails. "Just think about what I said."

Shadow then left without another word and all that could be heard was Amy's sobbing.

"Come on Amy, I'll take you to your room." Cream offered as she helped Amy off the floor and half carried her up the stairs and towards the guest bedroom.

Amy followed Cream inside and collapsed down on the bed and stared up at the whitewashed ceiling as tears continued to pour out of her eyes.

"I'll give you some space if you'd like." Cream offered, but Amy didn't reply. Cream sighed at Amy's lack of response and decided that it would be best to leave the pink hedgehog in peace to cope with what had just happened.

Amy didn't even noticed that her best friend had left the room as she curled into a tight ball, hoping to soothe all of the pain that was shooting through her body. The guilt felt like it was slowly gnawing at her insides at what she had done to the person she loved more than anything in the world. She was the cause of this.

So caught up in her own selfishness. When Shadow had offered her the job, it was not the fact that Eggman could finally be brought to justice that had made her say yes; it was the idea that Sonic might finally fall for her. Well now she was paying the price. This was karma. Sonic had got hurt and it was all because of her. She had been careless, stupid and selfish and it had caused nothing but trouble.

Her mind wandered to the Sonic she had seen on the news. The dark power that radiated off him as he hovered over the city like a dark angel. He seemed so enchanting yet so deadly. The negative power of the chaos emeralds had been forced into his system and the Sonic she had fallen in love with was lost forever. If Tails couldn't think of a way to get him back, did that mean he was stuck like this forever? Amy didn't know if she could bear a lifetime of that. She could barely live with herself now as she thought about what she had done to him.

A now clear memory flooded her mind, of herself lying in a pool of her own blood and the cold touch of his fingers against her head. Cold like a corpse. That's because Sonic was probably dead. Amy felt her heart shatter into a million pieces at the thought. The real Sonic had been replaced by a vile creature who sought death and destruction. This seemed to officially be the end.

It was unknown to Amy how long she had been lying there. Minutes. Hours. Years. In her state, she lost all concept of time as she remained in her tight ball, in the hopes that she could shield herself from the world. She wanted all the pain to go away. So much pain.

"Amy?" A high pitched voice whispered as the wooden door Amy had her back to creaked open. "You've been in here all day, are you feeling any better?" Cream asked as she stepped into the room.

Amy was sat up now, staring blankly at the wall, her knees tucked under into her chest as she rested her chin on top of her tightly folded arms. Her jade green eyes had lost all their happy light and her face had lost all sign of life.

Cream shook her shoulder gently, worrying about the state of her friend.

"Amy?"

No response. Cream shook her again.

"Amy, please answer me." She begged. "Amy you need to come downstairs and eat something. It's not good for you to be shut up here for hours on end."

Amy remained unresponsive and Cream finally gave up and let go of her shoulder. "Fine, I'll let you stay up here, but I'll bring you some food up ok?"

Amy gave her one weak nod and Cream sighed with relief once she realised that she hadn't gone completely catatonic and silently left the room, leaving Amy alone again.

.

The tight air vent that Rouge had manage to squeeze into creaked slightly as she moved along it. There was frequent whispering amongst the GUN soldiers causing Rouge to become suspicious. There was currently a meeting going on between the Commander and his lieutenant and Rouge was keen to find out what they could possibly be talking about. Her gut feeling was kicking in and she wouldn't be satisfied until she'd had a good nosey at what was going on. After all, she was a spy.

Her high sensitive hearing kicked in as she heard the Commander's voice below her. There was a tiny gap in the air vent where cool air was passing through, allowing her a limited view of the Commander and Lieutenant. They both seemed to be stood up and having a very intense conversation. She could only see the back of the Commander's head, his grey hair shining in the light while the Lieutenant's thick dark purple hair hid most of his face.

"These beings can no longer be trusted sir." The Lieutenant implored. "First Sonic, who next?"

"Explain this sudden theory." The Commander ordered.

"The anthropomorphic creatures all possess great powers that we humans cannot. The chaos emeralds have the potential to make them all stronger and what's to say that we won't have another Dark Sonic case? The threat is too profound to ignore. We must act now. Strike them before they strike us." The Lieutenant explained with worry in his voice. "Dark Sonic may make them realise how much more powerful they are than us and they'll take over!"

Rouge gasped at the nerve of the Lieutenant to make such remarks.

"About a handful of our own staff aren't even human." The Commander replied. "We've managed to live in harmony for thousands of years; why the sudden worry?"

"Because it's only now their true potential is being realised." The Lieutenant sighed. "And if we don't act now, it'll be too late sir. Sure we might capture and kill Dark Sonic, but who's to say that they all won't rise up. With their powers, they'll easily outmatch us."

"Do you have any idea what you're suggesting?" The Commander hissed. "This may create full scale war!"

"I believe we're already at war, sir."

The Lieutenant pointed at the TV screen showing the destruction that Dark Sonic had caused in the streets of Westopolis. Buildings had been smashed and fire bathed the area in a hellish red glow. People stumbled about in confusion as they had been left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Rouge's eyes widened as the Commander was left speechless.

_This couldn't be good._

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><p><strong>Ok, now I'm really beginning to think that this story should be rated M. Let me know what you think. <strong>


	16. The Madness Begins

**Thanks for the awesome reviews guys. The feedback is always much appreciated. **

**A lot of you have said this story should be rated M now so there ya go. Now its M rated. This story might not be too extreme…? Maybe. I dunno. But I thought I better rate it M just in case. So expect some moderate/strong violence, some mild language and dark themes. No lemon though, sorry. **

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>16: The Madness Begins<strong>

The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon as Rouge flew across the pink and orange sky. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the world seemed to be at peace once again – in blissful ignorance of what Rouge had just heard at GUN headquarters. Maybe it was just the calm before the storm. The last moments of tranquillity before complete and utter devastation occurred as people divided and took stances on the current situation.

Angel Island came into view, floating over the dark ocean that the rising sun had yet to touch. This wasn't Rouge's typical visit though. Not to try and steal the master emerald nor tease its guardian. Contact with Shadow had been lost and Rouge was now turning to the first person she could think of. Unsure of why he always popped into her head, she continued flying gracefully through the air, her black wings flapping every once in a while before tucking them into her back as she dived down towards the large stone shrine.

"Knuckles, I need to –" Rouge gasped before she could finish her sentence. Her heels clicked on the ancient stones as she landed, freezing in shock as her hand flew up to cover her mouth.

"Knuckles!" She screamed in horror, forcing herself to unfreeze. Running over to him, she collapsed next to his broken body, her hands waving over him in a frightfully unsure manner. She feared any further touch would injure him further.

The red echidna was lying in a dark pool of his own blood, some of it still moist and some of it beginning to dry, indicating that he had been this way for a while. His right leg appeared to be twisted, seeming like the bone had been ripped right out of the knee joint and was now lying limply in an unnatural angle. There were deep cuts covering his body that glistened in the morning sun and his white gloves were stained a dark red.

"Knuckles? Knuckles, can you hear me?" Rouge begged for a response in panic. Who had attacked him and why? Rouge's blue eyes darted across the landscape. Many of the stones surrounding the shrine had been cracked or shattered completely like someone had been slammed into them. One of the pillars appeared to have been knocked down and had rolled down to the bottom of the shrine where it had slammed into some of the trees and caused them to fall down. The white bat gasped once again when she realised that the master emerald was missing. Could it have been Dark Sonic that did all this?

"Please wake up!" Rouge tried to place a hand on his shoulder, but everywhere seemed to be covered in cuts and bruises and she didn't want to cause him anymore pain. But she needed to get him out of here. She needed to get help. And fast.

.

"_Sightings of Dark Sonic are becoming widespread as the once world renowned hero continues to cause destruction across the planet. Many people who have been reported missing are now being found dead in horrific conditions. GUN are now refusing to release statements on the issue and it's now unclear how they plan to handle this problem and we have been unable to contact any of Sonic's close friends. The President has urged that people should avoid trying to reach loved ones and should remain in their homes to avoid – "_

Tails slammed his thumb down on the standby button of the TV remote and threw it to the other side of the couch. He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, unable to shake the images from the news of his best friend causing so much destruction. Not only that, but he was now a murderer. The situation just kept getting worse. Tails just didn't know what to do anymore for the best. How could they stop Sonic without killing him? What was Dark Sonic planning to do? Was he just causing all of this mess for the fun of it? That hypothesis didn't seem likely to Tails because it did indeed appear that he was looking for something.

What if Dark Sonic was killed though? Tails sank lower into the cushions at the mere thought as his heart ached at the thought of his first and closest friend being killed. Yet, what if it was for the best? What if the true Sonic was beyond saving? Gone forever? Tails tried to fight back tears at the thought. But if this was just like his super state, then wasn't Dark Sonic just the Sonic they did actually know? Tails had never seen this side of his friend before and the way that Eggman was tormenting him when he used the weapon against Sonic, could that have brought out the evil in him? The fox knew that there was good and evil in everyone whether they wanted to admit it or not and sometimes people gravitated more towards the other. Was the negative chaos energy causing Sonic to gravitate towards evil? But that still didn't make any sense. Dark Sonic had refused to kill them at Eggman's base. What made even less sense was that afterwards, Dark Sonic had tried to kill Amy. Why would he spare them, but kill Amy? Unless he was still under the impression that Amy was working for Eggman. But that still didn't make any sense because Sonic seemed devastated when Eggman had revealed that he had harmed her.

Tails groaned as he felt a headache coming on. Nothing made sense anymore. What was even the point of trying to understand Dark Sonic's actions anyway? He knew there was no way they could beat him because after all, he was _Sonic_. A very powerful creature on his own merit, even without the aid of all seven chaos emeralds. Now, Sonic appeared to have no moral compass which made him even more formidable. Besides, even if he was evil…Tails didn't know if he had it in him to kill his best friend.

Thinking about those glowing white eyes made Tails shudder and he quickly shot upright in his seat and tried to banish all thoughts of Dark Sonic from his mind. Luckily, he was distracted as Cream entered the room looking quite sullen.

"What's up Cream?" Tails asked, his voice coated with concern. "Is Amy ok?"

Cream sighed. "I'm worried about her."

"Is she still acting weird?"

Cream nodded. "It's like…she's not all there. I understand that she feels bad and blames herself for what happened, but if she would just talk to one of us then maybe she could get it out of her system."

"It's not her fault." Tails tugged at his gloves stressfully. "None of this is her fault and she's silly to think so."

"I know, but I feel like it's more than that."

"What do you mean?"

Cream looked like she was fighting back tears as she finally took a seat on the couch opposite Tails and clung to the cushion like it was a lifeline. "I think she's sick Tails."

"How so?" He hadn't seen Amy properly since she came out of hospital two days ago. Since telling her the news, she'd shut herself away in her room and refused to come out. Cream and Vanilla had to force her to eat and Tails stayed well out of the way so as not to stress Amy out further.

"She's just so cold and pale." Cream whimpered. "She's refusing to eat and I caught her singing to herself again earlier."

"What was she singing?"

"Something about the seven chaos emeralds, that's all I could pick up." Cream explained.

Tails sighed feeling completely useless. "I suppose she's just stressed. Give her time and I'm sure she'll come round."

"Do you think so?" Cream asked hopefully.

Tails couldn't give her an honest answer. He didn't want to lie, but he didn't want to tell her the truth either. He had lost all hope.

Vanilla walked into the room and placed a sympathetic hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I'm sure she'll get better, Cream. Amy has had a nasty shock. I've managed to get her to sleep right now and she might feel a little better after some much needed rest."

"Thank you mother."

A sudden, loud and quick knock on the door caught their attention and all three of them froze. The knock sounded again, only this time more aggressive.

"Stay here." Tails instructed as Cream nodded and clung to her mother's hand.

Tails slowly made his way over to the front door, trying to peer out of the living room window as he moved towards it, hoping to catch a glimpse of who was outside. The impatient knocking sounded again and Tails gulped before he unlocked the front door and opened it.

"Tails, thank god, there's no one else I can trust." Rouge choked out as she dragged the unconscious body of Knuckles inside.

"Rouge? What's going on?" Tails asked in fear as he moved aside to let them pass. He briefly looked around outside in case they were being watched before he quickly slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Oh my goodness!" Vanilla gasped as she covered Cream's eyes, preventing her from seeing the state Knuckles was in. "Cream honey, why don't you go to your room, while I help Mr Knuckles?"

Cream left without argument and Vanilla quickly made her way over and helped Rouge carry the injured echidna to the couch where they gently laid him down. His blood stained the light pink coloured fabric, but Vanilla didn't seem to mind.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't know who else to turn to." Rouge breathed laboriously, a blood stained hand placed on her chest as her eyes were swimming with worry at the sight of Knuckles.

"What happened?" Tails gasped out as he immediately began helping Vanilla check him over.

"I don't know! I just found him like that!" Rouge cried out. "I think Dark Sonic must have attacked him and stolen the master emerald."

"Why didn't you take him to the nearest hospital?" Tails demanded in confusion as Vanilla assessed his twisted leg with a look of horror on her face.

"Like I said, I can't trust anyone right now." Rouge explained hysterically.

Tails glared at her suspiciously as Vanilla ran into the kitchen before coming back with a first aid kit.

"I may be able to help sterilise his cuts, but there's nothing I can do about his leg without a proper doctor."

She immediately went to work and Tails continued to assess Rouge; she wasn't exactly the most trustworthy person on the planet and had a long history of double crossing. Rouge glared back noticing that Tails didn't seem content with her reasons.

"What's going on Rouge?"

"Civil war, that's what!" Rouge spat.

"Huh?"

"Oh come on fox boy, you're supposed to be the smart one!" Rouge snapped. "GUN have now stopped giving out information about what they're planning to do next, now why could that possibly be?"

"Because what they're planning to do with Dark Sonic is unorthodox?" Tails guessed. The government usually did resort to keeping secrets in case the public rose up against them. It seemed to be the obvious answer.

Rouge sighed. "Not just to Dark Sonic…to our whole species."

"What?" Tails gazed at her in confusion.

"Don't you see?" Rouge questioned. "With Dark Sonic's power, GUN are beginning to question how powerful we all truly are. They believe that Dark Sonic is going to cause us all to rise against them and last time I heard, they were planning to strike us before we strike them."

"But we haven't done anything! We're just as much threatened by Dark Sonic as the humans are!"

"Well that's not how they see it." Rouge shook her head. "The humans at GUN are scared and they're resorting to drastic measures; stupid and drastic measures. That's why we can't trust anyone anymore. At any time, they could attack us and if we fight back, they'll believe that they were right to fear us. Our best bet now is to hide and lay low. Out of everyone, GUN will come after Sonic's friends first."

Tails gripped the back of the couch tightly as he processed what Rouge was telling him. Were GUN really that stupid? Why in the world would they rise up against GUN? They wanted the Dark Sonic problem to go away as much as they did. Were they forgetting that before Dark Sonic, the biggest threat to the world was Eggman? He was a super genius and human, yet they didn't stereotype all humans to be evil creatures who wanted world domination. Why were they having it done to them?

Tails' thoughts were interrupted by Vanilla's urgent voice.

"Tails, we really need to call a doctor to tend to his leg, otherwise it might never heal properly." She explained and Tails nodded in agreement.

"But it's too dangerous!" Rouge protested.

"I'd rather take our chances than risk making Knuckles' injuries any worse!" Tails argued back. "We'll call Doctor Wise; he was the one who looked after Amy. We can trust him."

Rouge sighed and relented as Tails picked up the phone and dialled his number.

.

The evening was approaching fast and Tails, Rouge, Cream and Vanilla were all waiting, sitting around the kitchen table as the doctor helped Knuckles.

"Do you think Mr Knuckles will be ok?" Cream asked, breaking the long silence.

"I'm sure he will be, Cream." Vanilla reassured her.

"Yeah, if Dark Sonic hasn't permanently damaged him." Rouge huffed in anger before turning her nose up in the air, unaffected by Vanilla's hard glare.

The door to the living room opened and the old looking owl walked out. All four of them stood up, staring at Doctor Wise, waiting for his thoughts.

"Knuckles was beat up pretty bad, but I don't think there will be any lasting damage." The doctor smiled reassuringly. "His cuts and bruises should heal fairly quickly, but his leg was in pretty bad shape. It had been dislocated and broken. I've managed to push it back into place and I've fitted a cast so now all we can do is wait."

"Is he awake?" Rouge demanded.

"He did come round for a few seconds, but then I gave him some pain medicine and it sent him back to sleep. He should be awake again in a few hours, but my advice is to let him rest." Doctor Wise explained.

Rouge had already dashed into the room before the doctor even had time to finish speaking, but he just sighed and made his way towards the front door.

"Just call me if you need anything else." Doctor Wise smiled in a friendly and kind way as Vanilla opened the door for him.

"Thank you so much for everything." She said before locking the door behind him.

Vanilla turned around to smile at Tails and Cream before she noticed Amy slowly making her way downstairs.

"Amy, dear, are you alright?" Vanilla asked as Amy yawned.

"Amy!" Cream squealed in delight, happy to see her friend moving about again. She ran towards the tired looking pink hedgehog and embraced her tightly. Amy remained motionless though, not returning the act. Cream noticed and backed away slightly, looking up at Amy with a mixture of confusion, worry and rejection.

"What's wrong?" Cream asked, worriedly.

"Nothing." Amy insisted. "I was just wondering what was going on." Her voice was flat and lifeless and the three of them stared at her with concern.

"Knuckles had an accident, but he'll be better soon." Cream answered as she held Amy's hands, trying to get a better reaction out of her.

"Hmmm." Was all the noise Amy made in acknowledgement as her whole body seemed to tremble slightly.

"Oh dear, you must be hungry." Vanilla noted. "I'll make you something."

"I'm not hungry."

"Are you sure? I could make you anything. You need to eat Amy or –"

"I said I'm not hungry. Thank you." Amy sighed.

"Maybe later then?" Vanilla offered, but Amy just ignored her so Vanilla made her way back into the kitchen, followed by Tails, leaving the two girls alone.

Amy half sat down, half collapsed onto the stair case, quickly followed by Cream who sat timidly next to her, gazing at her friend as if she was a stranger.

"Do you want to do something fun?" Cream asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Amy's cold dead eyes continued to stare forward, her whole body shivering slightly so Cream linked her arm through Amy's. Amy still didn't react and Cream sighed not knowing what else to do.

"Amy, please just talk to me. I'm your best friend and we tell each other everything." Cream urged before lowering her voice slightly. "I know you blame yourself for what happened to Sonic. Please don't. It's not your fault. Nobody could've foreseen this. What matters now is how we help Sonic get back to normal and then everything will be ok again. I promise."

Cream threaded her fingers through Amy's, although had some difficulty doing so due to Amy's shivering.

"Not enough." Amy mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Not enough." Amy repeated quietly and Cream stared at her, waiting for her to say more. "Purge."

"Well, never mind that, let's do something fun." Cream suggested, standing up and trying to pull Amy up with her. Amy originally refused to budge, but after added strength, Cream finally managed to pull Amy up off the stairs.

"Maybe I could show you some of my drawings?" Cream offered and Amy didn't reply so Cream just took it as a 'yes'.

The young rabbit dragged Amy upstairs and into her brightly coloured room, helping Amy to sit down on the wooden floor before running over to her desk and picking up paper and coloured pens.

"I've already showed Blaze, but I never got the chance to show you." Cream said as she proudly showed Amy the drawings. Amy stared at the happy themed drawings of houses, parks and all their friends without saying a word.

"I miss Blaze and I hate that she lives in another dimension sometimes, but she had no choice but to go back. She couldn't stay away from the sol emeralds for long. She was worried that...well, you know." Cream sighed as Amy continued to remain unresponsive.

"Hey, maybe you could draw a picture?" Cream exclaimed excitedly. "I hear that it can be very helpful when your brain is sick."

She picked up the red pen and tried handing it to Amy. The pink hedgehog just stared at the floor, her eyes blinking rapidly and Cream began to start feeling a little fearful. She pressed on anyway, hoping to help Amy feel better again. Prying Amy's finger's open, Cream placed the pen in her hand and smiled when Amy's hand responded and held onto the pen. Amy looked down and stared at it thoughtfully whilst Cream watched, looking hopeful.

"Purge." Amy repeated the same word from before and began doodling on the wooden floorboards much to Cream's shock.

"Erm, Amy, there's paper right there. Mother is going to be really mad if you do that." Cream shuffled away slightly.

"No more. No more. No more."

"Errr yeah, no more drawing on my floor." Cream giggled nervously.

"Make it all go away." Amy sang as she continued drawing.

Cream peered down to see what Amy was drawing. A lot of it seemed to be random squiggles, but she could also make out a diamond shaped object and a gun.

"Ok Amy, that's enough." Cream said a bit more firmly as she grabbed the pen and tried to snatch it from Amy's hand. Amy fought back, clinging to it until Cream finally won the mini game of tug of war and glared at her friend.

"Amy please calm down and tell me what's wrong." Cream demanded more seriously this time. Something was definitely not right with her friend.

"Purge." Amy muttered. "Not healed yet. Must heal."

"Amy, please, you're scaring me." Cream begged as she tried hard not to cry and remain strong for her clearly ill friend.

Amy began crawling towards Cream's bedroom window for no apparent reason, stopping directly in front of it and sitting down with crossed legs, staring directly in front of her as if she was waiting patiently for something. She then shook her head erratically before crawling back over to Cream, staring at her dead in the eye.

"Help." She whispered so lowly that Cream could barely tell if she'd said anything at all. "So cold." She added in a slightly loudly whisper.

Cream's heartrate accelerated, watching in confused terror as her best friend behaved like a lunatic. What had gotten into her?

"Ok Amy, I think you need some more sleep." Cream suggested and helped Amy up off the floor. Amy clung onto Cream and let her drag her out of the room all the while she continued to gaze behind them out of the window.

"What is it?" Cream asked as she followed Amy's line of sight only to see the sun setting behind the canopy of the trees.

Amy's eyes remained fixated as Cream continued to drag her out of the room and towards Amy's bedroom door.

"Come on Amy." Cream said as she opened the door.

Amy turned around and looked inside the room before she let out an ear-piercing scream. Cream covered her ears and stepped back in fright before regaining her composure. Amy looked like she was about to run until Cream managed to grab hold of her. She thrashed in the young rabbit's arms, still trying to run away.

"No, you can't make me go in there!" Amy begged as Vanilla and Tails ran up the stairs to see what all the fuss was about.

"What's going on?" Tails demanded and his eyes widened as he took Amy's strange behaviour into account.

"I don't know." Cream sighed with relief when her mother took hold of the frightened looking Amy. "She's been acting weird for a while and now she's just suddenly started freaking out. I don't know what to do."

"Amy shhhh." Vanilla tried to comfort her as she embraced her tightly. "It's ok, what's scaring you sweetheart?"

Amy tried to push Vanilla away, refusing to calm down.

"Did she see something?" Tails asked.

"I don't know." Cream answered, close to tears.

Tails peered inside the bedroom; nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He looked back at Amy who was still trying to fight her way out of Vanilla's grip. It definitely seemed like she was spooked by something. Was this what Cream meant by erratic behaviour? Amy's eyes were wide with fear and her whole complexion was pale. Her normal bright pink fur was now a dull, pale pink as if there was no life in her and her quills were raised up slightly in fear.

"No heal!" Amy yelled.

"She shouted something like that when she started drawing on my bedroom floor." Cream explained, her voice cracking with anguish as she observed her friend.

"What? Show me." Tails said as Vanilla pulled Amy into the bedroom.

"Come on dear, you'll feel much better once you've had some sleep."

Tails followed Cream into her bedroom and she pointed at the red markings on the floor. Tails tilted his head to one side as he kneeled down to inspect them. A lot of them were just lines and swirls, but he could make out a diamond – a chaos emerald perhaps – and a gun.

"What does it mean Mr Tails?" Cream sniffed.

"I don't know." Tails sighed as his ear twitched at Amy's continuous cries of fear.

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	17. Blood On Your Hands

**Hey everyone and thank you for all of the reviews! **

**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>17: Blood On Your Hands<strong>

"There you are." Shadow growled out as he stood with his arms folded. He and Dark Sonic were stood facing each other, metres apart on top of a high cliff in Green Hill as they glowered at one another. A morning spring storm was fast approaching from the distance, the thick cumulonimbus clouds towered high in the sky, blocking out the rays from the sunrise.

"Good morning, Shadow." Dark Sonic smiled in a menacing way. "You and GUN have been causing quite a bit of trouble for me. Then again, I suppose I should be used to it by now."

A quiet crackle of thunder could be heard in the distance as Shadow glared at Dark Sonic's cold, white, glowing eyes without flinching.

"Hmph, well maybe if you just switched back, there wouldn't be any need for me or GUN to come after you."

Dark Sonic merely threw his head back and laughed. The Dark mist continued to swirl around him like flames dancing in a fire as his white eyes once again locked with Shadow's as he stopped laughing.

"Like I said before, why would I want to give up this power?" Dark Sonic explained, smiling at the storm in the distance. "I've always been able to manipulate chaos energy, but you were completely right about me never having the guts to use it to its full potential before. All I was concerned with was defeating the bad guy and then running off for something new."

"I never had you down as a power hungry murderer, faker." Shadow muttered and Dark Sonic abruptly twisted back around and stared at Shadow with an unamused expression.

"But this isn't just about power." He hissed through clenched teeth as he curled his fists into tight balls by his side.

Shadow smirked as he hoped that Dark Sonic would finally admit his intentions. "Then what is it all about?"

Dark Sonic didn't answer as he remained frozen on the spot and Shadow sighed in frustration before decided to approach from a different angle.

"When we were fighting a few weeks ago at the base, you stopped and then retreated. Why?"

Dark Sonic finally shifted, turning his whole body to face Shadow.

"I had business to take care of."

"What kind of business?"

"Why should I have to explain myself to you? You, who led Amy astray, almost crashed the ARK into Earth, blew up half the moon and helped a band of alien terrorists. I think it's a little hypocritical of you to criticise what I have done." Dark Sonic's voice was cold and calculating as Shadow felt like his eyes could see right through him.

Shadow huffed. "Be that is it may, doing something wrong and then doing the right thing does not make someone a hypocrite. You've caused a lot of destruction and it needs to stop."

"Being philosophical just isn't your style, Shadow." Dark Sonic grinned.

Shadow ignored that comment. "But you're up to something and I want to know what it is. What about those friends of yours? Haven't you considered that they may disagree with what you are doing?"

Dark Sonic laughed again as lightening lit up the sky in the distance behind him. "My friends will be joining me soon enough, so I wouldn't worry about them if I were you. Everything's being taken care of and if they start doing anything to oppose me." He gently tapped the side of his head. "I'll know straight away."

"So you're, what, telepathic now?" Shadow unfolded his arms as his red eyes held nothing but hate for the creature in front of him. He'd gladly take faker over this thing any day, not that he was prepared to admit that out loud.

The small smirk on Dark Sonic's face broadened before he gazed off into the distance. "Not really, but something along those lines."

Shadow stood there in confusion as he couldn't understand what Dark Sonic was hinting at. As far as he knew, chaos emeralds didn't allow telepathy, but then again, the chaos emeralds held plenty of mysteries. Was Dark Sonic just bluffing when he said he'd immediately know? He seemed so certain, so confident that he had the upper hand.

"Of course it was an accident really." Dark Sonic sighed and Shadow's eyes widened slightly as Dark Sonic seemed to display a small hint of sadness. Was this a sign that Dark Sonic could switch back? Maybe Sonic was still in there deep down. There had to be a cure, there just had to be.

"An accident?" Shadow tried to keep him talking and bring out more of his emotions.

"Mmm." Dark Sonic mumbled before laughing manically. "A welcomed accident though."

Ok, so maybe there wasn't much hope there. Shadow huffed before tensing up as Dark Sonic took a step towards him.

"So, just try and oppose me." Dark Sonic challenged.

"Well, I'm going to do just that." Shadow growled out.

Dark Sonic growled back in a more animalistic way before he shot out a dark burst of energy, hitting Shadow painfully in the chest. Shadow groaned in pain as the force knocked him off the edge of the cliff and he plummeted down to the bottom. Pain erupted in his body as he impacted the ground and he opened his eyes to see Dark Sonic slowly floating down towards him, smiling.

"Look at you." Dark Sonic mocked. "Some ultimate lifeform." He tightly grabbed hold of one of Shadow's quills and slammed his head into the rocky ground. "Maybe I could give you amnesia again, huh? Would you like that?"

Shadow grabbed hold of Dark Sonic's arm and flipped him over his head. The loud boom from the ground could barely be heard over the loud rumbling thunder of the storm that was drawing closer and closer. Dark Sonic didn't even appear hurt as he looked up at Shadow with his glowing eyes and simply brushed a bit of dirt out of his quills as he stood up.

"I thought I warned you against pissing me off?" Dark Sonic reminded innocently before shooting another burst of chaos energy at Shadow. Shadow was sent flying backwards until his back collided with the wall of the cliff. He let out a small yelp of pain as the energy felt like it was burning his body like he was stood in the middle of a fire, but was powerless to get out of it.

The assault of energy ceased and Shadow seized the opportunity and shot a chaos spear at Dark Sonic. Shadow then watched in shock as Dark Sonic simply caught the energy in his hand before polluting it with his negative energy. He turned the yellow bolt to dark blue before firing it back at Shadow. Managing to spin dash out of the way just in time, Shadow was stopped mid spin by something grabbing hold of his ankle and slammed him to the ground. Pain shot up Shadow's spine and to the rest of his body while a small smile remained on Dark Sonic's face, showing no signs of discomfort or fatigue from the battle.

Quicker than the blink of an eye, Dark Sonic punched Shadow in the face and watched in satisfaction as blood trickled out of his nose. Shadow quickly wiped some of it away with his gloved hand as his eyes locked murderously with Dark Sonic's.

"You'll pay for that!"

Shadow pushed himself up off the ground and swung his leg around, attempting to trip Dark Sonic up. The dark blue hedgehog easily dodged Shadow's attack by levitating off the ground before copying his rival's actions, but instead he kicked him in the face. In the moments that Shadow was left slightly dazed, Dark Sonic clasped his hands around Shadow's throat. Shadow wrapped his hands around Dark Sonic as he attempted to pull him off him, but Dark Sonic was just too strong as he clung onto his neck.

In order to allow his escape, Shadow settled for punching Dark Sonic in the face as hard as he could. The shock forced Dark Sonic to let go, but he didn't appear to be hurt by the attack and they both growled at each other in frustration.

"You do realise that strangling isn't enough to kill me?" Shadow mocked with a smug grin on his face. "I can hold my breath indefinitely. Now what were you saying about me not being an ultimate lifeform?"

Dark Sonic snarled at him before a shocked expression suddenly replaced his bloodthirsty, murderous one. Shadow watched in confusion as Dark Sonic took a step back and Shadow wondered if he was about to switch back, however there didn't seem to be any signs of his fur changing colour or anything. Dark Sonic placed a hand gently on his head as if he had a headache and groaned slightly before snapping out of whatever state he was in to glare back at Shadow.

"Make a choice, faker." Dark Sonic snapped. "You're either on my side, or you're not."

"Why would I side with someone like you?" Shadow replied dryly as he stood in a fighting position with his fists ready.

"Fine, have it your way. This isn't the first time you've betrayed me." Dark Sonic remained in a casual stance.

"What are you talking about?"

Shadow was quickly silenced though, as negative chaos energy was shot at him and he was sent flying backwards. The familiar intense burning sensation filled his body again and Shadow groaned in agony before he dropped like a heavy rock onto the ground, creating a small impact crater around him.

He managed to open his red eyes as the storm clouds began swirling above him and the heavy rain began pounding down. Lightening flashed across the sky, brightly illuminating the dark creature above him who sported a victorious grin.

"I'm sorry you have to see this." Shadow managed to catch Dark Sonic mumbling before he swooped down towards him.

.

Cream took a deep breath as she gently knocked on the door of Amy's room. There was no reply so Cream gently opened the door and peered inside. She momentarily panicked as Amy's bed appeared empty before her eyes scanned the room and caught the little pink hedgehog curled up into a tight ball, asleep in the far corner of the room. Taking a step inside, Cream then froze as her movement caused Amy to stir slightly before her eyes gently fluttered open.

"Cream?" Amy's voice croaked slightly, still heavy with sleep.

"Good morning Amy, h-how are you feeling?" Cream asked timidly as Amy appeared to be acting normal so far.

Amy sat up, yawned and stretched before looking around the room in confusion. "What the heck am I doing sleeping in the corner?"

"I was just about to ask you that." Cream responded, her voice full of concern.

Amy groaned slightly. "Maybe I was just sleep walking."

Cream nodded before taking a cautious step forward. Amy noticed and stared at Cream in confusion as her friend acted like she was some sort of feral and unpredictable wild animal.

"What's up?" Amy asked slightly fearfully.

"Amy…what do you remember about yesterday?"

"Not much and I really don't care." Amy muttered as she made her way over to her bed and collapsed onto it. "I just want Sonic back."

Cream sighed with relief as Amy suddenly appeared to be sane again. Depressed, but sane.

"Well it looks like Knuckles saw Dark Sonic." Cream explained. "Maybe he can offer some leads on how to help him."

"What? Really?" Amy gasped, sitting up. She was still pale and tired looking, but there was a slight sparkle of hope in her eyes and that made Cream smile with relief.

"Sure." Cream said, hoping to bring Amy out of hibernation. "We're just waiting for him to come round."

Cream had barely finished her sentence before Amy was running out of the door and down the stairs. Cream followed as Amy burst into the living room and gasped as she saw Knuckles laying on the couch, just appearing to be waking up. His leg was held in a cast and he was covered in cuts and bruises. Tails and Rouge were standing over him.

"Knuckles?" Tails asked as Knuckles' purple eyes scanned the room.

"Where am I?" Knuckles mumbled in confusion.

"You're at Vanilla's house." Rouge explained. "I found you unconscious on Angel Island."

"And the master emerald?" Knuckles questioned.

"Gone." Rouge sighed.

Knuckles growled lowly to himself as he sat up clenching his fists. "I'll kill him."

"Who?" Amy asked.

"Dark Sonic, who else?" Knuckles snapped. "The last thing I remember was catching him trying to steal the master emerald before we battled and he knocked me out."

A heavy silence filled the room at the mention of Dark Sonic before Rouge broke it.

"Uh, look at us. We need to stop dancing around the subject of Dark Sonic and tackle it head on. He needs to be stopped."

"But how?" Amy asked. "We can't hurt him."

Tails shot her an odd look which unnerved Amy slightly before the young fox placed a hand on his chin in thought.

"Why would Sonic steal the master emerald?"

"Beats me, but whatever the reason, I'm still taking him down." Knuckles grunted in anger.

"Perhaps he wanted more power." Tails began to muse.

"Well just let him try and steal the power. I'll defeat him before he can even touch it." Knuckles yelled determinedly as he attempted to stand up. However he collapsed back onto the couch in pain and Rouge shook her head at him.

"Defeat him? You can't even walk, let alone find him. No one knows where Dark Sonic goes." Rouge sighed.

Cream gasped slightly as Amy suddenly collapsed against the wall, pressing her back against it as she stared straight ahead.

"Leave me alone." Amy mumbled.

"Not again." Cream cried out as she began sobbing and clinging to Amy. "Amy please."

"Amy?" Tails questioned. "Is everything alright?"

Amy slowly slid down the wall as she placed her hands on her head and curled into a tight ball on the floor. She began rocking back and forth manically as the others watched on in horror.

"What's going on?" Knuckles asked.

"The same thing happened last night." Tails explained as he walked over to where Cream was clinging on to Amy, begging her to snap out of it.

"Traitor." Amy whispered with a shaky voice and Tails managed to pull Cream away and place a hand on Amy's shoulder.

"Amy, please tell us what's the matter." Tails asked patiently.

Amy looked up and gazed into Tails' blue eyes. Tails looked back at her and tried to decipher what was wrong as he assessed her facial expressions and body language. This was now the second time this spontaneous erratic behaviour had appeared and Tails wondered why. Was it her head injury, the stress or something else?

Amy waved her hand up as if she wanted to tell him something and Tails nodded in understanding, encouraging her to try and communicate. She stared off into the distance and brushed her fingers against her lips before whimpering in fear, curling up further and humming softly to herself.

"What does all this mean?" Cream cried.

Tails was stumped as he stared down at his insane friend. Amy was always so determined and never gave up so why the sudden snap in her mind? Tails really didn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't help Sonic, he couldn't help Knuckles and now he couldn't help Amy. Was he now destined to fail all his friends and watched them suffer in front of him whilst he was helpless to stop it? Tails let a scared gasp at the thought.

The pink hedgehog continued rocking back and forth before she let out a small scream and stared at her hands. She began scratching at her gloves as if she was trying to get dirt of them and began brushing them urgently against her dress. Clearly what she was doing was doing nothing to help and she began crying.

"Get it off." Amy cried out as tears streamed down her face. "Get it off."

"Get what off?" Tails asked worriedly.

Amy continued rubbing her hands together while she sobbed before she quickly turned and ran into the kitchen. Cream and Tails followed her while Rouge and Knuckles watched on in alarm. Amy opened the kitchen drawers and searched through them before she took out a largest knife she could find and hovered it over her wrist.

"Need to get it off. Yeah. Need to get it off." Amy muttered insanely as she raised the knife.

"NO!" Both Tails and Cream cried out. Cream managed to pin Amy's arms to her side while Tails easily snatched the knife off her, preventing her from cutting her own hand off. Amy collapsed against Cream, who cried as she held her in her arms and Tails slowly placed the knife down on the kitchen counter with wide eyes.

"Please." Amy whimpered as she shook her head before passing out as Tails and Cream exchanged fearful glances.

.

The Lieutenant marched down the dark corridor that led to the Commander's office. He carried a file in his hand and he brushed a lock of plum purple hair out of his face before stopping in front of the metal door. He knocked twice and heard the Commander's authority filled voice speak from the other side.

"Enter."

The Lieutenant opened the door and walked inside, quickly closing it shut behind him. The Commander watched him from his desk, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded. After saluting, the Lieutenant placed the file down on the Commander's desk.

"Here it is." He explained as the Commander picked it up and examined it. "This will help create a better world."

"I'm still not too sure about this." The Commander murmured as he looked through all the paper work.

"With all due respect sir, we can't allow this to continue. The threat will always be there and we need to act now before they get ideas from Dark Sonic." The Lieutenant sighed. "We let Shadow continue to pursue Dark Sonic as he's probably the only one who can do it, but as he does that, we carry out with my plan."

The Commander ran a hand through his grey hair as he debated.

"Please try to understand sir," The Lieutenant begged, "If we don't act fast they will all realise that they have the power to overthrow us. They'll unite with Dark Sonic and take us down. They'll wipe humans off the face of the planet. Dark Sonic is already the most powerful creature right now but what happens if he breeds or shares his power with other anthropomorphic creatures?"

The Commander sighed before staring up at the Lieutenant with a determined expression. "You make valid points."

The Lieutenant smiled. "I knew you'd see things my way, sir."

"You have my permission to carry out the plan."

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. I'll hopefully be publishing my first sonamy one-short request tomorrow if all goes well. If you have a request, feel free to leave one and I'll see what I can do. <strong>


	18. Demonic Intruder

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**I own nothing.**

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><p><strong>18: Demonic Intruder<strong>

Tails yawned sleepily before he went back to furiously writing down notes on a notepad that Vanilla had lent him. He felt like he had been stuck here for eternity, unable to reach his workshop through the imminent threat of Dark Sonic and now on top of that, it looked like they had to start worrying about GUN coming after them. The world was in a mess.

Knuckles was snoring away on the couch and the girls were all upstairs in bed whilst Rouge had left a few hours prior to return to GUN headquarters in the hopes of finding out more information. Shadow seemed to have gone missing, but they weren't too worried, knowing full well that hedgehog could take care of himself. But that still didn't stop Rouge from worrying slightly as they were supposed to be working together in capturing Dark Sonic.

Another spring storm was raging overhead and Tails jumped every time a flash of lightening lit up the room in a spectacular bright glow in the pitch darkness of night. The TV signal had cut out, but Tails wasn't even sure if he wanted to watch it. All anyone ever talked about on that device right now was Dark Sonic and Tails couldn't bring himself to watch what everyone was saying about his suddenly deranged best friend.

He scratched the back of his head with his pencil before groaning and scrunching up the piece of paper and pushing it to one side of the large coffee table in front of him. It wasn't exactly his desk at the workshop, but it would have to do for now. He flinched at another flash of lightning and Knuckles' snores faltered slightly before picking back up again and Tails shook his head at the noise his red echidna friend was making. Even though Tails highly doubted he'd be able to concentrate even without Knuckles snoring his head off, it would've been nice to have some piece and quite.

Looking over at Knuckles and the injuries he had sustained filled Tails' mind with unanswered questions as to what Dark Sonic was even doing there in the first place. None of his actions were making any sense. The only reason Tails could think of as to why Dark Sonic would steal the master emerald was in order to gain more power.

Tails shivered as the room seemed to suddenly become very cold, halting his thought process further before he sighed with defeat and slouched down in the armchair. It was hopeless. Dark Sonic was going to win at whatever it was he was playing at, end of story. There were no signs of his best friend in the white lifeless eyes that glowed in the dark mist that surrounded him. His best friend was lost forever. Tears built up in his eyes at the thought. There were no signs of Dark Sonic switching back anytime soon, not at the rate he was going anyway. A lump formed in Tails' throat, a tight knot that refused to budge and he began shaking with his repressed sobs. Sonic really was gone. It appeared that the negative energy of the chaos emeralds had corrupted him completely and there was no goodness left in him. Maybe Dark Sonic saving them in the beginning was just an attempt to annoy Eggman rather than out of concern for the safety of his friends. That would make sense given Dark Sonic's actions afterwards. Trying to kill Amy, destroying the cities and now murder.

Sonic was gone.

A creak in the floorboards above him caught his attention and Tails' ear twitched the direction. He told himself that it was just one of the girls moving about, but an unexplainable feeling of dread flooded his stomach and the noise happened again, only this time it was louder. What would one of them be doing wandering about at this late hour anyway? Unless it was just the house settling?

The rain continued to pound against the window and another flash of lightening lit up the room, only this time Tails remained frozen as he listened out for the noise again. Something didn't feel right. He decided to go up and check to see if any of the girls were moving around upstairs. Then maybe that would put his mind at rest. Tails made his way up the stairs as quietly as he could, clinging onto the wooden banister of the stairs as his limbs shook with fear and his heart pounded loudly in his chest. He remained on high alert as he reached the top of the stairs and peered down the dark hall. Everything seemed to be fine. No lights were on and he could hear Cream's heavy breathing behind the wooden door he was stood next to that was covered in her drawings.

The floorboards creaked beneath his feet slightly as he walked, matching the sounds he had heard earlier. So somebody had been walking about up here. A muffled sound came from Amy's room and Tails froze once again. He wondered if she was having another episode. It had taken them two hours to calm her down earlier in the day after she had woken up from passing out. Afterwards, Vanilla had finally managed to get Amy to sleep and she hadn't been any bother the whole afternoon. She hadn't done anything as drastic after trying to cut her hand off, but her incoherent mumbling and singing had continued, only a few words clear enough for Tails to make out and none of them were really related to each other.

Tails tilted his head closer to the door in order to listen better. Upon hearing shuffling sounds and Amy's muffled whimper, he decided that he better go in there and check on her. He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the cold metal doorknob and twisted gently before gingerly pushing the door open.

Gasping in fright, Tails fell backwards slightly as he took on the sight of Dark Sonic hovering over Amy's sleeping form as she tossed and turned. Dark Sonic's head snapped around as he heard Tails open the door and bared his teeth at him before he seemed to recognise him. The dark hedgehog floated back down to stand on the floor and assessed his friend in front of him.

"Tails." Dark Sonic greeted.

Tails really wanted to believe that it truly was just Sonic that was standing in front of him. To see joy filled, shining green eyes instead of cold, white ones that held very little emotion. To see his friend smiling at him in a friendly way rather than the taunting smirk that he now possessed.

"Stay away from her!" Tails ordered, conjuring up all of the bravery he possessed to protect Amy from whatever Dark Sonic was planning to do to her.

"I know you're thinking you're protecting Amy, but trust me," Dark Sonic chuckled, "I know what's best of her."

Tails shook his head before glaring at him. "What do you want to do to her? Kill her?"

Dark Sonic sighed. "All in good time."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you should keep your nose out." Dark Sonic snapped.

Tails flinched before managing to regain his composure. Sonic would never shout at him in such a way. It only reinforced the fact in his head that this was no longer Sonic. This was a demon full of corrupting negative chaos energy. Pure evil.

"You don't scare me."

Dark Sonic folded his arms and took a step towards Tails who, with a lot of effort, remained in place.

"Is that so?"

"Yes." Tails nodded. "A good friend once told me to never surrender to evil, no matter what."

"Wise words. I remember telling you. I'm glad." Dark Sonic's smirk widened.

Tails' glare melted into a confused expression, but his tough stance never relaxed. What was Dark Sonic playing at?

"Hmph, so there's still some regular Sonic in you then?" Tails noted.

Dark Sonic ran a hand through his upturned quills, turned his head to face Amy's sleeping form for a split second before he looked back to grin at Tails. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I still am Sonic."

Tails' anger boiled to breaking point. "No you're not." He hissed. "How dare you compare yourself to someone so heroic and good. You're nothing like him! You're evil!"

Amy's eyes snapped open at Tails' shouting and her eyes scanned the room frantically, yet she seemed oblivious to the scene before her. Dark Sonic didn't react while Tails stared at her in alarm at how she would react to seeing Dark Sonic for the first time; especially given that he was in her room.

"Need to stop them." Amy mumbled in a trance like state.

"Now look what you've done." Dark Sonic scolded Tails in a patronising way, causing Tails to glare up at him again.

Dark Sonic just smiled and tilted his head to one side.

"What have you done to her?!" Tails demanded.

"Stop the link." Amy pulled at her quills and squeezed her eyes tightly shut and rolled to one side, remaining in a foetal position as she trembled.

They both stared at her, waiting for her to say more, but nothing happened so they turned back towards each other.

"I asked you about what you've done to her." Tails repeated through clenched teeth.

Dark Sonic merely lightly chuckled, remaining in a relaxed stance.

"Transfer!" Amy yelled out of nowhere.

"I believe Amy just answered your question." Dark Sonic angled his body towards the window. "As much as I'd love to stay and talk, I have stuff to do and sooner or later, you'll be joining me."

Tails' eyes widened at Dark Sonic's words before Dark Sonic laughed as he walked towards the window and faded away as if he was a ghost.

Tails looked back at Amy who was staring off into space before she began making wild gestures with her hands.

"Oh Amy," Tails sighed, his voice full of sadness, "What has he done to you?"

"Purge." Amy mumbled the same word from before.

"Purge what?" Tails sat down on her bed to question her, hoping to get some sense out of her, or at least understand what was wrong with her.

Amy didn't reply. In fact she was acting like Tails wasn't even there as she fiddled with her golden ring bracelet.

"Amy, can you hear me?" Tails asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

She remained unresponsive before her head suddenly snapped up and she pointed and laughed at him.

"Clueless!"

Tails sighed as he covered his face with his hands in stress. "Yes I am."

Where did this insanity suddenly come from?

Tails suddenly got an idea: Amy had started drawing what was clearly on her mind when Cream had given her the pens, so maybe she would do the same this time. Then he could perhaps try and make more sense of what was going on in her head. Shooting one last worried glance at Amy who had begun humming and swaying from side to side, Tails made his way quickly back downstairs and grabbed his notepad and pen before dashing back up and handing it to Amy. She stared at it in confusion, her eyes darting from the paper and back to Tails.

"Ok, so she seems to be demonstrating some form of response here." Tails noted out loud as he forced the pen and paper into her hands.

His hopes raised as Amy began doodling and he peered over her shoulder with interest. A lot of the shapes didn't make much sense and he doubted they were intended to, but he could soon make out the shape of a gun and he tilted his head in confusion.

"Are you referring to GUN?" Tails questioned.

Amy's face twisted into one of anger before aggressively drawing a cross through the weapon and drawing a smiley face next to it.

"No guns make you happy?"

"Tails." Amy whimpered.

"Amy?" he bent down to her level, hoping that she was regaining her sanity again. "Can you hear me?"

Amy sighed and rubbed her eyes before slowly getting out of bed. Faster than Tails could react, she bolted downstairs. Tails unfroze and followed her.

"Amy, get back here!" Tails hissed as quietly as possibly, trying hard not to wake anyone else up.

She sat down on the couch opposite Knuckles, stared at him for a few seconds and then began playing with her quills. Tails sighed and stood next to her, watching and analysing her every move. Knuckles startled awake and looked at them both in confusion.

"What are you both doing down here?" He asked groggily.

"Sorry Knuckles," Tails apologised, "It looks like Amy's having another episode and she just ran down here. But I caught Dark Sonic in her room."

Amy whimpered at his name and Tails wondered whether or not if it was just a coincidence. She curled further into the cushions, squeezed her eyes tightly shut and placed her hands over her ears. Tails turned her attention back to Knuckles who suddenly looked enraged and ready for a fight.

"That creep was here?" He growled out, trying to sit up but let out a small groan as his body still ached from his injuries.

"Yeah, he was just floating around in Amy's room when I found him. I'm not too sure what he was doing there, but whatever it is, it can't be good. I think he has something to do with Amy's insanity." Tails explained.

"Well, the loss of any sanity she had to begin with anyway."

Tails shot Knuckles a warning glare. "This is serious. She's really sick."

"Please, stop it." Amy whimpered as she began rocking back and forth.

"Stop what?" Knuckles demanded.

"Free me."

Tails and Knuckles exchanged a glance before watching Amy to see what she did next.

"Free me." She repeated. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"That's the longest coherent sentence she's said so far." Tails sighed as he sat down next to Amy, still watching her carefully.

"Who's she talking to? And more importantly, what is she talking about?" Knuckles asked.

Tails shook his head slowly in defeat. "I wish I knew."

Amy's head snapped up to stare at Tails. Her green eyes appeared dead, no longer the happy and sparkly orbs they used to be.

"Attack." Amy managed to choke out. "Plan attack."

"Attack?" Tails repeated in confusion. "Attack on what?"

"Great, she really has gone nuts." Knuckles grumbled. "That's all we need at a time like this. Do you think she's just depressed from Sonic going all evil?"

"I don't think this is depression Knuckles." Tails sighed as Amy embraced a cushion close to her chest before she began staring blankly ahead.

"Then what's Dark Sonic done to her?"

"Power is enriched by the heart." Amy sang.

"Well done." Knuckles praised her mockingly before turning back to Tails, awaiting his answer.

"When I asked him the question, Amy said something and then Dark Sonic said that she had answered my question."

"Well, what did she say?"

"Transfer, I think." Tails answered as he tried to think about what that could possibly mean.

"Transfer? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know Knuckles!" Tails snapped out of frustration. "Don't you think I'm trying to figure this whole mess out?" He stopped himself took a deep breath to calm down. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken my frustration out on you."

"Don't worry about it." Knuckles mumbled as he stared at his cast with a sour expression. "We're all under stress with this whole situation. The sooner we get rid of this problem the better."

"But how?" Tails shrieked. "I have absolutely no idea what to do."

Knuckles shrugged. "Maybe this requires more than just brains. Maybe we need to think outside the box with this one."

"I just feel like I'm missing something important. Some vital piece of information. Or that the answer is right in front of my eyes, but I just can't see it." Tails tugged at his fur in frustration. "There has to be a cure for Sonic, there just has to be. His super state isn't permanent, so why should his dark state be?"

"No threat." Amy breathed as her eyes began to flutter closed.

"Do you think that maybe we should call a doctor?" Knuckles asked as he stared at Amy's now sleeping form worriedly.

"I'll call Doctor Wise in the morning." Tails said as he also began to feel himself drifting off. "Maybe he can do something to help her." Was the last thing Tails added before the long night of thinking and planning caught up with him and he fell asleep.

.

"Ok boys," Rouge whispered to herself, "What are you planning?"

She had managed to squeeze herself into the same air vent as before, overlooking the conference room where many of the high ranking GUN soldiers had gathered for a meeting. The room was full of whispering as the soldiers waited for the meeting to start, wondering what could possibly be going on.

Rouge's ear twitched as she heard someone clearing their throat at the front of the room and she turned her attention to the now very familiar purple haired lieutenant. His hands were clasped behind his back and she could just about make out his determined expression through the small slits in the vent where a cool breeze was passing through.

"The time has come." The lieutenant began. "These anthros are becoming a huge threat. A threat that we can no longer ignore."

"Huh?" Rouge heard one of the soldiers mumble and she smirked. She was glad that she was on the same page as at least one of the humans here. She listened harder.

"First we have Dark Sonic, but what next?" The Lieutenant continued. "They are already much more powerful than we are and they could rise up and exterminate us as if we are nothing but vermin to them. But I say they are the vermin."

The soldiers began whispering amongst themselves.

"Think about it. Many of you are married with children. Do you want them to be in a world that's constantly under threat? Isn't that why you all signed up for this job? To protect them and the other people of our world? And I say people because these anthros aren't people. They're nothing but animals who have become too powerful for their own good. They must be destroyed."

A few soldiers began nodding in agreement and Rouge's eyes widened in astonishment. They couldn't actually be falling for all of this?

"You saw Dark Sonic's power!" The Lieutenant shrieked, happy that people were beginning to see his argument. "What if he shares that power? His offspring could possess even greater power and we'd all be in danger. All it takes is a bit of chaos energy for them to become corrupted and for their powers to become stronger. The Dark Sonic problem has grown out of control and we need to prevent another incident like this from happening again. Who wants a safe world? Who wants a world free from anthro threat? Who will join me?!"

The crowd's cheers grew louder and Rouge slammed her fist down on the mental beneath her in anger. Those fools.

The cheering suddenly stopped as they turned around to find the source of the loud banging sound. Rouge froze as she realised her mistake before the vent was ripped open by a group of soldiers who pulled her out roughly, clinging onto her arms, preventing her from escaping.

"Hey!" She yelled. "That's no way to treat a lady!"

"You're no lady you stupid anthro!" The lieutenant spat as he regarded her with disgust. "Spying on our meetings, huh? I told you these anthros couldn't be trusted."

"You guys can't actually be falling for all of his sweet talk?" Rouge remained calm as she smirked at them all. "Can't you see he's manipulating all of you?"

"Don't listen to her poisonous lies." The Lieutenant ordered as he glared at her. "Agent Rouge, you're under arrest."

"What?" Rouge gasped.

"You heard me." The Lieutenant replied with a smirk forming on his face. "Take her away."

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><p><strong>Feel free to leave your opinions. <strong>


	19. Decrepit Mentality

**Yikes! Sorry I took so long with this update. Mainly down to real life getting in the way and I was sick this past weekend which delayed it further. Thanks for being patient though. **

**Thank you for the reviews.**

**I own nothing**

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><p><strong>19: Decrepit Mentality <strong>

The rising sun of the new day was completely invisible behind the thick blanket of dark, thick clouds that loomed over the city of Station Square. Everything was still fairly dark with some people beginning to stir within their houses, preparing for work and other daily activities while others continued to sleep peacefully.

The air was heavy with a morning mist and many figures were beginning to slowly appear at the bottom of a quiet street, marching forward in an orderly fashion. The GUN soldiers stopped, holding their weapons tightly in their hands with neutral expressions on their faces, waiting for their next command.

The Lieutenant walked confidently on ahead of them, a megaphone held loosely at his side before he brought it up to his face.

"All anthros are ordered to step out of their homes immediately. I repeat, all anthros are ordered to step out of their homes immediately." The Lieutenant commanded.

A few GUN soldiers exchanged glances before a few anthros and even a few humans poked their heads around their front doors and out of their windows, curious as to what was going on. Some of them began to timidly step out, staring at the soldiers in confusion and in a slight state of worry, wondering if they had done something wrong.

"Hands in the air!" The Lieutenant barked his order.

The few anthros that had stepped outside slowly held their hands in the air, exchanging glances to see if anyone else knew what was going on.

"What's going on?" A small rabbit finally asked as his hands rose into the air.

"Cleaning up the planet." The Lieutenant smirked in response. "Private Smith, handcuff him."

Private Smith marched over and did as he was told, the rabbit struggled to break free before glaring up at the Lieutenant.

"But I haven't done anything wrong!" He protested.

The Lieutenant shook his head as the smirk remained on his face. "You existed."

"Excuse me?"

"Private Smith, shoot him." The Lieutenant ordered coldly.

"What?" Private Smith gasped.

"I said _shoot him._"

The young private stared at the fearful rabbit and down at his gun before he threw his weapon to the floor.

"No." He disobeyed and the Lieutenant's eyes flashed dangerously at his disobedience.

"What did you just say?"

"I said no." The Private said more confidently, standing protectively in front of the rabbit. "I think this whole thing has been ridiculous from the start. You can't blame a whole species for something that Doctor Eggman did. GUN was designed to protect people, anthros included, not exterminate them."

The Lieutenant grinded his teeth at his words. "A traitor, huh?" The Lieutenant pulled the gun from his belt and aimed it at the Private. "Well, then maybe you'll serve as a fine example of what happens when you disobey orders and serve the enemy. Two for the price of one."

The sound of a gunshot filled the air and both the rabbit and the Private flinched back, waiting for death to take them, but nothing happened. There were gasps of horror and fear from the other GUN soldiers as Dark Sonic appeared, blocking the bullet, deflecting it into a GUN soldier next to the Lieutenant.

Dark Sonic smirked at the soldiers, challenging them as he hovered protectively in front of the human and the rabbit.

"Looks like my sources were indeed correct." Dark Sonic smiled creepily at the soldiers. "You are trying to exterminate all anthro creatures."

"And I see you've finally decided to show your face to us." The Lieutenant showed no fear as the other soldiers took a step back. "That's quite a lot of power you have right now. It's a shame you use it for evil."

Dark Sonic chuckled. "Funny, I should say the same thing about you."

The Lieutenant frowned at Dark Sonic's playful attitude. "Shoot him."

Most of the GUN soldiers immediately began firing at Dark Sonic who just sighed in boredom as the bullets bounced off him, many of them reflected back to the soldier's, shooting them dead as the bullets entered their chests. Some GUN soldiers deserted, running behind Dark Sonic like many of the anthros in the neighbourhood had with Dark Sonic keeping a protective stance in front of them, making sure no bullets hit them.

Soon many of the GUN soldiers still fighting for the Lieutenant's cause were now lying in a pool of their own blood with only a few remaining. The Lieutenant held his hand out to stop his last group of soldiers from shooting.

"You see how powerful he has become?" The Lieutenant glared directly at Dark Sonic who remained unamused by what was going on.

"To the point where your stupid weapons bore me." Dark Sonic disparaged as the wind around them picked up and a loud engine noise could be heard overhead.

A military helicopter landed behind the Lieutenant and the GUN soldiers next to him hopped on board, followed by the Lieutenant who grabbed hold of the handle and leaned out as it began to take off.

"I now realise I have to use different means in order to make this planet safe again, but don't worry _Dark _Sonic. I will catch you."

Dark Sonic watched, uninterested as the helicopter flew off and disappeared into the misty sky. He looked down at the puddles of blood on the floor before turning to the people behind him.

The rabbit walked up to him timidly.

"You're not all bad are you?" He asked in a quiet voice. "You just protected us, even those who were originally against you." He gestured to the defected GUN soldiers who all stared at him in amazement, but with fear still evident on their features. "Thank you so much."

Dark Sonic didn't react as he turned his attention to where the hills would normally be visible, only right now, they were hidden by the swirling mist. The mist was becoming so heavy that it seemed like the dark mist the surrounded Dark Sonic was connected to the clouds around him, as if he was one with the world.

"GUN won't stop though." A female wolf shrieked worriedly.

"They'll kill us too." One the of the GUN soldiers sighed. "Anyone who goes against them are now enemies worthy of death."

Everyone began panicking amongst themselves and Dark Sonic's ear twitched in irritation before he turned back to face the small terrified crowd.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Dark Sonic yelled and everyone immediately became silent, fearful of what he would do next. "One of Eggman's old bases is in one of those hills in the distance." He pointed in the direction. "GUN never knew about it because I dealt with him there before they could ever catch onto him. You'll be safe hiding in there."

"Oh thank you!" The rabbit gasped out as he approached Dark Sonic more confidently this time. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

Dark Sonic smirked. "I just need loyal supporters." He turned to fly away before one of the GUN soldier's voices stopped him.

"Are you going after the Lieutenant?"

"That pest can wait." Dark Sonic chuckled. "I still have something I need to find first."

.

"Thanks for coming at such short notice, Doctor Wise." Tails smiled gratefully as he allowed the elderly owl into Vanilla's house.

"Not at all. I did say that if Amy was having any trouble, then I should be contacted immediately." Doctor Wise explained as Tails led him into the living room. He placed his bag of equipment on the table and turned back to Tails who fidgeted worriedly. "I tried to get here as soon as I could, but there was a problem with Dark Sonic in the city."

"He was in Station Square?" Tails gasped, horrified.

Doctor Wise nodded glumly. "I'm not too sure what happened as GUN aren't reporting anything but there are rumours that a few GUN soldiers were killed and a few people have gone missing."

"Oh, well, thanks for the information." Tails sounded more stressed than ever as he rubbed his forehead.

"Now, what seems to be the problem with Amy?" The Doctor asked, realising they'd digressed slightly.

Tails stopped fidgeting and placed his hands behind his back as he tried to find the right words to explain exactly what was going on. "Well…Amy's been acting a bit strange lately?"

"Strange? What kind of strange?"

"Strange to the point of insanity. There are times where she seemed normal and then she just seems to slip into episodes of insanity. She sings to herself, talks nonsense to herself, she drew on Cream's floor and all sorts of other stuff. I just don't know what to do anymore doctor." Tails explained, feeling utterly useless.

"May I see her?" Doctor Wise requested seriously as he picked up his medical kit. Tails nodded, leading him upstairs to Amy's room.

"You're just in time anyway." Tails sighed as they stood outside her door. "She seemed normal this morning, but she seems to have snapped again."

"When did she slip back into it?"

"About an hour ago. We haven't told her you're coming." Tails replied as he gently opened Amy's bedroom door.

They both slowly peered inside to see Amy leaning against the wall, staring blankly ahead.

"Amy?" Tails spoke softly as he gingerly stepped inside her room.

Amy didn't move.

"Doctor Wise is here. Do you remember him?" Tails asked. "He helped you while you were in hospital."

Amy cringed back slightly. "He did nothing." She said in a flat tone before curling into a ball, resting her chin on her knees and continuing to stare ahead.

"That's actually quite responsive compared to other times." Tails noted to the Doctor who nodded in understanding.

They were careful to stay as far away from Amy as possible so as not to scare her. Doctor Wise made notes on everything that he was seeing and hearing before he slowly made his way over to sit on the desk chair near the window.

Amy looked up at him before sighing and looking straight ahead again.

"So you do recognise him?" Tails questioned.

"Need to break it." Amy growled out as she clenched her fists.

"Break what, Amy?" Doctor Wise asked as he leaned forward slightly. "Let us help you."

Amy didn't respond as she remained as still as a statue. She pressed her lips tightly together before finally moving her fingers up to trace the outline of her lips.

"So cold."

"Do you need a blanket?" Tails asked with concern, taking a step forward.

"I don't think she's in the real world right now." The Doctor sighed as he stared at Amy with eyes full of sympathy.

"But why is she behaving like this? Is it because of her previous head injury?"

Doctor Wise shook his head. "I very much doubt it. If she had any brain damage, it would've been apparent the moment she woke up. Besides, we also did scans of her brain just in case and she was perfectly healthy. Whatever this is, her physical injuries weren't the cause."

"What about post-traumatic stress disorder?"

"That is a possibility." Doctor Wise agreed as he refused to take his eyes off Amy. "She was complaining of nightmares when she was still in the hospital. Although I've never seen a PTSD case quite like this before. Tails, do you think you could tell me everything that happened to her after leaving the hospital?"

"Sure." Tails began explaining. "She seemed fine until we told her about what happened to Sonic. She became slightly depressed which was understandable, I mean she has been in love with him for as long as I can remember. She shut herself in her room for a while and it was a few nights ago when she first had an insane episode."

"What happened?"

"I'm not too sure; she was with Cream for most of the time. I just know that she was mumbling things and drew what looked like a chaos emerald and a gun on Cream's floor and when she tried to put Amy to bed, she just started freaking out and refused to enter her room."

Both their heads snapped around to stare at Amy as she shivered, her eyes darted to the window before she pressed herself harder against the wall.

Tails' face turned grave as he began telling of her next episode. "I was there for the duration of her next episode. She started shouting random words and seemed to be in a great deal of distress. It was like she was seeing something that we weren't and then she…" Tails shuddered.

"What?" The Doctor pressed.

"She…tried to cut off her own hands."

"I know this is hard, but please continue."

Tails took a deep breath and did as the Doctor told. "She then passed out after that so we put her to bed. I was staying up late that night when I heard noises coming from her room so I went up to investigate and I found _him _in there."

"Who?" Although Doctor Wise had a feeling he already knew.

"Dark Sonic." Tails growled out his name. "He was just hovering over her. I think it's him that's done something to her. He seemed to tease me with the fact that he had. When I asked, Amy shouted the word 'transfer' and Dark Sonic said that she had answered my question."

Doctor Wise looked deep in thought before he pushed his spectacles further up his beak. "And his Dark state is similar to his super state I presume? Except this time he absorbed the negative energy?"

"That's right." Tails clenched his fists at the thought. "Now he's evil."

Amy giggled, but said nothing more.

Tails stared at her in alarm. "I swear that even though she may not respond appropriately, she can still understand everything we are saying."

"Interesting hypothesis Tails, I'll be sure to take it into account when I'm assessing her." Doctor Wise assured him before adding, "Now, I would like some time to speak with Amy alone."

"Of course, just call me if you need anything." Tails offered before he quietly made his way out of the room and shooting Amy one last worried glance before disappearing.

"So it's just you and me now Amy." Doctor Wise gave her a small smile. Amy stared up at him. "Judging by one of your responses earlier, you do indeed seem to recognise me. You said I did nothing."

Amy traced her lips with her finger again as she stared off into space.

"Oh come on Amy." Doctor Wise pulled his chair closer to her. "If you can understand us, why don't you respond? What's stopping you? I promise that if you tell me a secret, I promise it'll stay between you and me."

"There's no more secrets." Amy sighed as she continued tracing her lips.

"Aha, so you definitely do understand me." Doctor Wise made a note before turning back to face her. "What do you mean there's no more secrets?"

Amy abruptly stood up, making the Doctor jump slightly before he regained his professional composure and watched as Amy paced the room. She had a deep frown on her face, but didn't look like she was about to do anything dangerous.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Amy growled out.

"Doing what?" Doctor Wise questioned.

Amy refused to look at him as she carried on pacing, picking up speed.

"Please just stop it." She whimpered.

"Is something bothering you, Amy?"

Amy slumped down again before tears began leaking from her eyes. The Doctor's heart broke at the sight as Amy ran her fingers through her quills.

"Should've let me die."

"No Amy, we're not going to let you die." The Doctor tried to reassure her. "We're always going to help you get better. I helped you when you were in a coma and I'll help you again now. It's what I'm here for."

Amy turned to glare at him. "You have done nothing." She said each syllable of every word sharply and Doctor Wise stared at her with wide eyes.

"W-what do you mean?"

Amy rocked back and forth slightly as she glared straight ahead. "_I'll get you_." She spat harshly.

"Ok, Amy, I'm going to try something different now. I'm going to say certain words to you and feel free to react to them however you want." Doctor Wise sat closer to her so he could judge her reactions better.

"Cream."

No response.

"Tails."

No response.

"Hmmm, Dark Sonic."

Amy flinched back before her eyes darted wildly around the room and she placed her hands over her ears.

"It's ok, Amy." Doctor Wise reached out to place a hand on her shoulder which began shaking under his touch. "He's not here, he's not going to hurt you."

"He's always here." Amy whimpered. "Always watching."

Doctor Wise felt like he was beginning to understand what was happening, although he certainly hoped that there was a better explanation for her condition. He pieced together Amy's words in his mind and kept coming to the same conclusion. He was surprised the young fox hadn't worked it out, but then again the boy did have a lot on his mind and the Doctor couldn't blame him. If it were true, then he was glad that he'd worked it out instead of Tails.

He gulped as he made his way back over to his notepad and began reading through his notes again, adding in the latest things that Amy said.

"When you had that fit in the hospital, that wasn't your injury was it?" Doctor Wise whispered sadly before turning back to stare at Amy. She started crying again and Doctor Wise made his way back over to her, placing a hand on her head.

She traced her lips again as tears stained her cheeks. "So cold. The transfer…so cold."

Doctor Wise analysed her actions carefully, every new word she uttered made him more confident that his theory was correct. He thought it was strange how she had healed so quickly but he never imagined that this could be the reason. He couldn't believe this had happened and what would have to happen next. He continued staring at Amy as his heart ached with sorrow. During her time at hospital, he had grown to like the girl. It was such an unfortunate shame.

A knock on the door made both Amy and Doctor Wise jump before Tails opened it and peered inside.

"Is everything ok?" Tails asked as he lurked awkwardly in the doorway.

"Yeah, I was just going to put Amy to sleep, then I'll come down and talk to you." Doctor Wise smiled reassuringly.

Tails nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

Doctor Wise turned towards his medical bag and began rummaging through. His picked out a sleeping drug and filled a needle with the liquid before making his way towards Amy.

"This won't hurt a bit." He comforted her as she gazed at the needle in confusion. "This is to help you and everyone else."

She didn't resist as he inserted the needle into her arm. The drug took affect straight away as her eyes began to droop and her body began to sleepily relax. Her eyes gently fluttered closed and her breathing slowed as she fell asleep on the floor against the wall. Doctor Wise picked her up as carefully as he could and placed her down on her bed before walking back over to his medical kit.

"It's ok Amy, I'll make this as painless as possible. You won't feel a thing. You'll be at peace and there's a good chance that Dark Sonic will be weakened and placed at a disadvantage." Doctor Wise sighed as he shakily filled a new needle with a different substance. "A simple overdose. That's all it'll be."

He made his way over to Amy, stroked one of her quills with his free hand and smiled sadly at her peaceful looking expression.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way." He brought the needle towards her arm when a sudden noise above his head made him freeze.

"And what do you think _you're _doing?"

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	20. More Questions Than Answers

**Hey everyone and thanks for the awesome reviews. **

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><p><strong>20: More Questions Than Answers<strong>

Faster than Doctor Wise could blink, the needle was snatched out of his hand by the creature above him. Dark Sonic floated down, roughly pushing Doctor Wise away from Amy. His shoes clicked as he landed on the hard wood floor as he inspected the needle in his hand and blocked Amy from view. The dark mist that surrounded him, blocked all light from entering the room, giving the illusion they were in a supernatural realm. His white eyes glowed ominously as he tapped his foot, waiting for the Doctor to answer his question.

"You still haven't answered my question." Dark Sonic reminded, his voice dripping with restrained anger.

"You were in the hospital that night weren't you?" Doctor Wise accused and Dark Sonic smirked in response. "You were the reason why Amy starting becoming hysterical, the reason her sanity keeps slipping now. It was all you. I know what you've done to her."

Dark Sonic chuckled. "Oh?"

Doctor Wise glared at him. "But how did you get here now? How did you know? I put her to sleep."

Dark Sonic's smirk faded into an expression of offense. "Do you think I'm stupid? I knew what you were going to do the second I knew you'd worked it out. I'm certain that whatever is in this needle is no safe drug."

"I was doing the young lady a favour." Doctor Wise snapped. "What you've done to her…how could you?"

"And you think I wanted that for her?" Dark Sonic growled out as he crushed the needle in his grip, pieces of plastic and liquid flew out in random directions. The Doctor looked hopelessly at the broken pieces as he'd realised he's lost his chance. Dark Sonic was going to win now. This was the end.

"Something is telling me that you're seriously misunderstanding my motives." Dark Sonic's smirk returned once he saw the hopeless look on the Doctor's face. He reached his hand back to gently caress one of Amy's quills as she slept and Doctor Wise took a step forward.

"Get your hands off her." He hissed.

"Why should I? Amy loves me and she's been very useful these last few days without even realising." Dark Sonic explained as his white eyes gleamed with victory.

"You evil monster."

"Is that what I am?" Dark Sonic challenged, folding his arms across his chest. "But still, you tried to kill Amy and interrupted my search; that will not go unpunished."

Doctor Wise's eyes widened in panic as Dark Sonic appeared in front of him within a nanosecond. Dark Sonic's hands snaked around his throat and constricted.

"Sorry Doctor, but I can't exactly have you reveal anything now, can I?"

Doctor Wise remained locked in his coils, unable to scream for help with only quiet choking sounds being the only noise he could make. Dark Sonic just watched emotionless as Doctor Wise's eyes began to close. The dark hedgehog realised him, dropping the Doctor's unconscious body like an unwanted sack. He stared at the body lying at his feet before looking up and listening to see if anyone was coming up to investigate. He could hear Tails and Knuckles talking about the master emerald, but no sign of anyone coming up the stairs.

His ear twitched as he heard Amy stirring in her sleep behind him. She fidgeted around restlessly before her eyes opened and she moaned groggily as her arm ached and her head felt dizzy. She sat up and soon her eyes locked on the dark figure in front of her bed.

"S-Sonic?" She gasped out in her confused, sleepy state.

The figure turned around to face her and Amy gasped at the glowing white eyes that pierced right through her. His quills pointed upwards, his hands were balled into tight fists and a dark mist flickered off him like a dark fire.

Her scream of terror became trapped though as a hand suddenly clasped over her mouth and her arms were pinned above her head on the bed. She tried to thrash her way free but the creature was too strong and only clung on tighter, making any movement harder. She pulled her legs up to kick her attacker, but for all her effort, he might as well have been made of titanium.

"Sssh, Amy, it's just me, Sonic." His voice was gentle and Amy whimpered into his hand. She wanted to say that he was lying, that he wasn't Sonic. This Sonic looked evil and dangerous. Nothing like the heroic figure she had fallen in love with.

He loomed over her and his breath tickled her face. Her eyes scanned the room, trying to find anything that could help her escape when she spied the body of Doctor Wise on the floor. Dark Sonic once again caught her screams which became muffled by his hand on her mouth.

"Don't worry, he's not dead – yet." Dark Sonic whispered into her ear bitterly.

Amy went limp with defeat in his grip. She trembled as she realised that this is what she had done to him. Through her selfishness, she had turned Sonic into a monster. What was he doing in her room in the first place? Was he planning to kill her? Maybe she deserved it after what she had done to him. An eye for an eye.

Dark Sonic chuckled once he realise that Amy wasn't going to fight back anymore.

"You know, I think this is the first conversation we've had where you've actually been sane." He spoke casually, as if this was a normal situation. Amy had no idea what he meant. What did he mean sane? These past few days had been a blur to her.

Dark Sonic sighed. "I suppose it's my fault though…but right now, it's worth it. I'm sorry Amy. I didn't mean for this to happen to you."

Amy whimpered in confusion.

"But it looks like you used the last of it fighting off that sleeping drug. So just hold still." Dark Sonic ordered as he tightened he loosened his grip slightly.

Amy began thrashing around again, not wanting to stick around to find out what he meant.

"Oh come on Amy," He scolded, "You should know how this goes by now. I need to make the transfer."

Amy thanked her lucky stars as the door suddenly opened and Tails stepped in. His eyes widened as he caught sight of Dark Sonic pinning Amy down.

"AMY!" Tails yelled in fright. "Let her go you monster!"

"Long time no see Tails." Dark Sonic greeted the young fox who glared at him from the doorway, not daring to make any sudden movements. "Is that any way to greet me? Your best friend?"

"You're not my best friend. Sonic was." Tails growled out through clenched teeth as Dark Sonic pushed his buttons.

"But I am Sonic." Dark Sonic smiled, gently releasing Amy who quickly got up and ran behind Tails without a second thought.

Tails stared at Dark Sonic in confusion. "You're letting her go? Just like that?"

Dark Sonic merely shrugged. "I can come back for her anytime I want."

"So it _is _you who's been making her insane."

Amy gasped. "What are you talking about?"

Tails then looked down and shrieked when he saw Doctor Wise lying limply on the floor. Dark Sonic walked towards the unconscious body, kicking it with disgust while Tails and Amy trembled.

"What have you done?" Tails demanded.

"He had it coming." Dark Sonic answered, his body beginning to shake with anger. "He tried to kill Amy."

Tails narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe you."

Dark Sonic just sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Believe what you want to believe. But I also couldn't have him spoiling mine and Amy's little secret."

"What secret?" Amy asked suspiciously as she peeked around Tails. "What have you done to me?!"

Dark Sonic winked at her and tapped the side of his head while Amy stared at him in horrified confusion. What did he mean?

"I'll never trust you!" Tails yelled. "You're not Sonic. You're just some cruel and evil monster that took his body!"

"Oh, I'm the monster am I?" Dark Sonic chuckled. "Sooner or later, I'll be all you'll have. Just like when we were little kids, remember? How nobody else wanted anything to do you?"

"Shut up!" Tails yelled.

"Please Sonic, just stop all of this and switch back." Amy begged as she began crying. Why was Sonic behaving this way? Treating his friend so horribly and clearly he was using her for something. She just didn't know what.

"NO!" Dark Sonic barked out making them both jump. "There's still so much to do first."

The dark hedgehog abruptly turned and grabbed hold of Doctor Wise before causing them both to fade out of the room. Amy and Tails remained standing there in a state of shock and fear. The dark mist that surrounded him vanished with him, allowing light to enter the room again. The sun finally broke through the thick morning mist, shining beams of light into the room, warming the front of their bodies.

Amy sighed and walked over to her window to peer out with her back to Tails. She folded her arms over her chest as she glared down at the garden below her and watched two blue and pink flickies happily singing together in a nest. The world outside seemed to be in a complete juxtaposition to what was going on inside Amy. Everything around her seemed so ordinary now, but inside she felt lost, confused and guilty. She was the cause of this.

"This is all my fault." Amy closed her eyes as she voiced her thoughts.

Tails gasped behind her. "What are you talking about?"

"If I hadn't been such an idiot and started this whole double agent business, then Doctor Eggman would never have been able to carry out his plan."

Tails sighed and made his way over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as he reached her. "How were you to know that all of this would happen? It's not your fault Amy. If it's anyone's fault, it's Eggman. He wanted world domination again and he thought he could use Sonic to get it, but obviously he didn't think that part of his plan through well enough."

Amy turned to face Tails and gripped his upper arms in her hands, staring into his eyes as she fought back tears. "What's wrong with me Tails? Dark Sonic said things to me. Things that I don't understand. What's he done to me?"

"I-I don't know Amy." Tails murmured in defeat. "I wish I knew, I really do."

The tears finally broke free of Amy's eyes and began trailing down her cheeks as she let go of Tails' arms.

"What did he say to you?"

Amy sniffed as she tried to wipe the tears away and remain strong.

"He said that it was the first conversation we'd had that I was sane for. That he needed to do a transfer." She explained, not sure if what she was saying meant anything.

"Transfer. That word again." Tails narrowed his blue eyes in thought.

"What does he mean?"

"I don't know." He admitted, feeling ashamed at his lack of knowledge. "Let's head downstairs."

Amy nodded and followed him into the living room where Vanilla was sat knitting in the corner and Knuckles was sat with his leg propped up on the couch, flicking through TV channels. Cream's humming from the kitchen could be heard as the aroma of freshly baked cakes filled the room.

"Well look who's down and sane." Knuckles muttered as he caught sight of Amy before letting his gaze drift back to the TV.

"What?" Amy asked, panicking slightly. Knuckles was in on it too?

"Amy," Tails began questioning, "How much do you remember?"

Amy searched through her brain and began panicking even more as most of her memories of the past few days appeared blurred.

"I don't know." Amy shrieked, placing her hands on her head in alarm. "Everything's one big blur."

"Ok ok, don't panic." Tails tried to reassure her. "The thing is, it looks like Dark Sonic's been doing something to you and it made you have periods of insanity."

"W-what?"

"Yeah, well, more insane that normal." Knuckles mumbled before cringing back slightly as Vanilla shot him a glare.

"It's ok though dear." Vanilla placed her knitting down on her lap. "We made sure nothing happened to you."

"But I'm so scared. I want to know what he's done to me."

"We all do." Tails sighed in frustration.

"By the way, what was going on up there? I thought Doctor Wise was with you?" Knuckles asked.

"Dark Sonic kidnapped him." Tails explained, his expression morphing into anger.

"What?!" Knuckles snapped. "That evil fur ball, first the master emerald and now this? When I get my hands on him!"

"He needs to be stopped as soon as possible." Tails agreed.

Amy's eyes widened. "Hold up, Sonic said that he was stopping Doctor Wise from killing me."

"Amy, he's lying." Tails insisted.

"Why would Doctor Wise want to kill you?" Knuckles asked in confusion.

"Exactly!" Tails agreed with Knuckles again. "This is just one of Dark Sonic's schemes."

Amy glared at Tails, shocked at his words. "How could you say that? You're talking about him as if he's as bad as Doctor Eggman! Deep down, I know Sonic is in there."

"Then why is he doing this?" Tails suddenly turned on her. "Sonic is dead Amy. Eggman killed him with that weapon and all that's left is the negative embodiment of chaos. Have you forgotten that he tried to kill you? That he's hurt and killed many others? That he's torturing you with insanity right now?"

"He's not in his right mind." Amy whimpered. Never in her life had she seen Tails so angry and bitter. It was so unlike him. She could understand that the stress of everything was getting to him, but he didn't have to take it out on her, or lose hope completely.

"There has to be a cure." Amy added. "We always manage to fight back and win. We _will _get Sonic back."

Tails sighed, the anger fading from his face.

"You're clutching at straws Amy. Sonic is gone. Replaced by nothing but evil, hatred and rage. If Sonic was still in there, he would've managed changed back by now."

"_Dark Sonic was once again spotted in downtown Station Square earlier this morning."_

The sound of the news anchor interrupted their argument and they all turned to face the TV.

"_The details are unclear, but it seems he attacked GUN soldiers unprovoked and citizens are once again being urged to stay indoors. Many people have now been reported missing while bodies are also being found, many of them shot. GUN still refuse to make any further statements on the situation and simply urge people not to approach Dark Sonic or his friends."_

"Great." Knuckles grunted. "Now they're deciding to blame us too? What a joke."

"This is dreadful." Vanilla gasped, placing a hand on her chest.

Amy sighed and turned to gaze out of the window as she thought about Dark Sonic. She shuddered as she could still feel the ghost of his hand on her wrists. Her friends had said she's gone insane these past few days. So why wasn't she having an episode of it now? None of this was making any sense to her. Was Sonic just merely insane too? Was the power too much for him? What if…what if Dark Sonic was right about Doctor Wise trying to kill her? The idea didn't make any sense as she couldn't think of any reason why he would want to kill her. Dark Sonic had said that she was being useful to him. In what way could he possibly mean?

She turned to stare back at her friends who were discussing options amongst each other. What if Amy was unknowingly doing something that was putting her friends in danger? She felt sick at the thought, but she couldn't find any evidence for it.

No matter what though, she was going to figure it out. She knew that the real Sonic was still in there somewhere and no matter what, with or without her friends' help, she was going to get him back.

.

Rouge the Bat placed her hands over her ears to help block out the constant crying and shouting of the other inmates. Being locked up in this small, horrible cell was probably the lowest moment of her life. She was going crazy in there.

"Would room service be too much to ask for?" Rouge yelled at the thick metal door. She'd tried kicking it down multiple times, but she just wasn't strong enough.

She couldn't believe that GUN had the nerve to arrest her. They'd questioned her relentlessly about her species, along with her mission with Shadow and Amy and project darkness. The only reasons she was being kept alive was because she had information they viewed as necessary. She had no idea what was going on in the outside world right now. Shadow had been missing for a while now and Rouge was beginning to lose hope of ever being rescued.

A key clicking in the lock caught her attention and she released her hold on her ears, staring hopefully at the door. At last, something was happening. The door opened to reveal the Lieutenant with a line of GUN soldiers behind him.

"Room service ma'am." The Lieutenant smirked and Rouge glared at him.

"I had expected five star treatment." Rouge retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

"Well, your usefulness is complete." The Lieutenant announced, ignoring her last comment.

"Oh good, so I can go now?"

"Oh you'll be leaving alright." The Lieutenant stepped to one side. The rest of the GUN soldiers aimed their guns at her and Rouge gasped, stepping back in alarm.

"Leaving this world that is."

"Chaos spear!"

The bolt of yellow energy narrowly missed the startled GUN soldiers, crashing into the door. The shock wave of the energy knocked everyone over and Shadow the Hedgehog leapt over the heads of the GUN soldiers towards Rouge.

"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me." She winked. "Ah!" She screamed as Shadow yanked her out of the cell and passed the recovering bodies of the soldiers.

"Don't let them escape!" The Lieutenant ordered and gun fire immediately sounded behind them.

Rouge pulled her arm free and began flying above Shadow as he skated along the ground of the base. They wove in and out of the prison cell blocks, the GUN soldiers falling further and further behind as they couldn't keep up.

Shadow shot a chaos spear at an air vent and immediately dived into it, closely followed by Rouge. They climbed upwards and began crawling through, no sign of the soldiers knowing where they were yet.

"Well isn't this cosy." Rouge grinned. "So where have you been all this time?"

"I'll explain later." Shadow grunted back and Rouge sighed.

"You're not exactly the most pleasant person to have a conversation with are you?"

"Be quiet." Shadow hissed back at her. "Or we'll get caught."

"How did you know where I was?" Rouge whispered.

"GUN agents are going undercover on the streets all over the world and murdering anthros. I rescued one and beat the man until he revealed what was going on within GUN. He admitted that you'd been arrested. I knew that you would've been kept alive until this point for information" Shadow explained.

"So GUN have been murdering people like us in the streets?"

"Yes." Shadow replied. "They fear us."

They both froze when they heard two voices outside the air vent. They listened hard as they heard two soldiers walking by.

"So we get to attack Sonic's friends tonight?" One soldier asked excitedly.

"Yeah and then we can use them to finally defeat Dark Sonic." The other responded. "And we can capture all of those traitors who joined Dark Sonic."

"Those cowards make me sick."

Their voices faded as they walked further away and Rouge gasped as she registered the information.

"We have to get out there and warn them."

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